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FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

AN ITALIAN EPISODE AT 
THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV 



BY 

H. NOEL WILLIAMS 

AUTHOR OF 

'MADAME RECAMIER AND HER FRIENDS," "MADAME DE POMPADOUR.. 

"MADAME DE MONTESPAN," "MADAME DU BARRY," 

"QUEENS OF THE FRENCH STAGE," 

"LATER QUEENS OF THE FRENCH STAGE," ETC. 



WITH PHOTOGRAVURE PLATE AND 
SIXTEEN OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS 



NEW YORK 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

27 & 29 WEST 23RD STREET 

1906 



Printed in Great Britain 



TO 

MY WIFE 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

HORTENSE MANCINI, DUCHESSE DE MAZARIN Frontispiece {Photogravure) 
From an engraving after the painting by Sir Peter Lely. 

TO FACE PAGE 

CARDINAL MAZARIN IO i 

From an engraving after the painting by Mignard. 

ARMAND DE BOURBON, PRINCE DE CONTI 38 

From an engraving by Frosne. 

ANNE MARIE MARTINOZZI, PRINCESS DE CONTI . . . . 40 

From an engraving after the painting by Beaubrun. 

LAURE MANCINI, DUCHESSE DE MERCGEUR 58 

From a contemporary print. 

LOUIS XIV 72 

From an engraving after the drawing by Wallerant Vaillant. 

MARIE MANCINI IIO 

From an engraving after the painting by Sir Peter Lely. 

ANNE OF AUSTRIA, QUEEN OF FRANCE 1 58 

From an engraving after the painting by Mignard. 

PRINCE CHARLES (AFTER CHARLES V) OF LORRAINE . . 200 

From an engraving by Nanteuil. 

MARIA THERESA, QUEEN OF FRANCE 220 

From an engraving after the painting by Beaubrun. 

LORENZO ONOFRIO COLONNA, PRINCIPE DI PALLIANO, GRAND 

CONSTABLE OF THE KINGDOM OF NAPLES .... 238 
From an engraving after the drawing by Giacomo Bichi 

MARIANNE MANCINI, DUCHESSE DE BOUILLON . . . . 254 

From a contemporary print. 

ARMAND DE LA PORTE, DUG DE MAZARIN ET DE LA MEILLERAYE . 268 
From an engraving after the painting by Mignard. 

MARIE MANCINI COLONNA, PRINCIPESSA DI PALLIANO . 310 

From the painting by Mignard, 

CHARLES EMMANUEL II, DUKE OF SAVOY 33° 

From an engraving by G. Vallet. 

MARIE LOUISE D'ORLEANS, QUEEN OF SPAIN . . . • 35- 

From an engraving by L. Armessin. 

OLYMPE MANCINI, COMTESSE DE SOISSONS 3^4 

From a contemporary print. 



ERRATA 
Page 43, last line. For "allotted to a suite" read " allotted a suited 
„ 391, line 28. For " 1690" read " 1708." 
„ 392, line 9. For " 1690" read " 1708." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 



CHAPTER I 

Mazarin and his family — Hostile criticism provoked by his promotion of 
his brother Michele — His sisters, Signora Martinozzi and Signora 
Mancini, and their children — The Cardinal determines to bring his 
nephews and nieces to France — Arrival of Anne-Marie Martinozzi 
and Laure, Olympe, and Paul Mancini — Their reception at Court — 
Prediction of Madame de Villeroi — Kindness of Anne of Austria 
to the little girls — Question of the relations between the Queen- 
Mother and Mazarin considered. 

pOR five years after he had succeeded Richelieu as 
chief Minister, in May 1643, Mazarin remained 
an isolated man. He had no relations in France, and, 
with a single exception, he brought none of his kins- 
folk from Italy to share his prosperity. Madame de 
Motteville tells us that he was wont to declare that the 
beautiful Italian works of art with which his hotel was 
filled were the only relatives he desired to have with 
him. 

The exception referred to was his younger brother, 
Michele Mazarini, a Jacobin monk at Rome, to further 
whose interests he did not hesitate to use the diplo- 
macy and power of France, since, not content with 
appointing him Archbishop of Aix, he intimidated the 
Pope into making him a cardinal. He soon had reason 
to regret his misplaced kindness. The new cardinal 
differed strangely from his brother. Giulio — or Jules, 
to give him the Gallicized form of his name — was 



2 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

" affable, insinuating, and a charming companion " ; * 
Michele, rough, headstrong, and brutal. So far from 
being grateful for the favours bestowed upon him, he 
treated the all-powerful Minister with the utmost 
familiarity, and was accustomed to speak of him 
behind his back with undisguised contempt. He had, 
indeed, respect for no one, not even for the Queen- 
Mother, and in a short time contrived to render him- 
self so generally detested that, in order to get rid of 
him, Mazarin sent him as Viceroy to Catalonia, an 
appointment which gave rise to much scandal. Michele, 
however, whether from incapacity or some other cause, 
only held the post a few months and then returned to 
Rome, where he soon afterwards died, a victim of 
debauchery, if Gui-Patin is to be believed. 

Nothing which Mazarin had hitherto done had excited 
such hostile criticism as his efforts on behalf of this 
unworthy brother, and the failure of the experiment 
discouraged any desire on his part to bring the elder 
members of his family to France. But the younger 
members seemed possible elements of strength. Before 
Mazarin left Rome, as the Pope's vice-legate to France, 
in 1634, he had established his two sisters in excellent 
marriages. The elder had married Girolamo Marti- 
nozzi ; the younger, Hieronyma by name, Lorenzo 
Mancini, a Roman baron. Of Martinozzi, little is 
known, save that he is said to have been of noble 
descent. But the Mancini were undoubtedly an old 
family, who could trace their ancestry back to the 
fourteenth century, though whether they had ever 
been quite so illustrious as the Duchesse de Mazarin 
(Hortense Mancini) tells us in her " Memoires " is open 
to question. 

1 Marechal de Gramont, " Memoires." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 3 

Signora Martinozzi, now a widow, had two daughters 
— Anne-Marie and Laure. Signora Mancini had been 
blessed with ten children, of whom eight — three sons, 
Paul, Philippe, and Alphonse, and five daughters, 
Laure, Olympe, Marie, Hortense, and Marianne — were 
still living. 1 

In 1647, finding himself firmly established in the 
Queen- Mother's affections, and apparently firmly estab- 
lished in power, Mazarin resolved to make a fresh 
experiment towards transplanting his family to France, 
and accordingly demanded from Signora Martinozzi 
her eldest daughter, and from Signora Mancini two 
of her daughters, the eldest, and her son Paul. These 
children were from seven to thirteen years of age. 
Although invited to journey to a foreign land, to which 
their mothers were not bidden, there was no hesitation 
in sending them to the brilliant lot which awaited the 
adopted children and probable heirs of the great 
Minister, and in September they arrived at Fontaine- 
bleau, in charge of the Duchesse de Noailles, who had 
been despatched to Rome with a numerous suite to escort 
them to France, just as if they had been Princes and 
Princesses of the Blood. 

"On 11 September (1647)," sa y s Madame de Motte- 
ville, " we saw arrive from Italy three nieces of 
Cardinal Mazarin and a nephew. Two Mancini sisters 
and the nephew were the children of the youngest sister 
of his Eminence, the third niece was a Martinozzi, 
daughter of the Minister's eldest sister. The eldest 
of the little Mancini (Laure) was a pleasing brunette, 
with a handsome face, about twelve or thirteen years 
of age. The second, also a brunette (Olympe), had 

1 We have adopted the Gallicized form of the Christian names of 
these children, as it is by them that they are known to fame. 



4 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

a long face and pointed chin. Her eyes were small, 
but lively, and it might be expected that, when fifteen 
years of age, she would have some charm. According 
to the rules of beauty, it was impossible to grant her 
any, save that of having dimples in her cheeks. 
Mile. Martinozzi was blonde ; her features were 
beautiful, and she had much sweetness in her eyes ; 
and had we been astrologers enough to divine in 
her face the prospects of her fortune, as we did those 
of her beauty, we should have known that she was 
destined to high rank. The last two were of the same 
age ; we were told about nine or ten years old." 

The little strangers were met at Fontainebleau by 
Madame de Nogent, who brought them to Paris and 
conducted them to Anne of Austria's apartments in the 
Palais-Royal. The Cardinal was with the Queen when 
they arrived, but he took scarcely any notice of his 
young relatives, and almost immediately retired to his 
own apartments, on the plea of fatigue. 1 The Queen, 

1 Pending the completion of the Palais-Mazarin, in the Rue Neuve 
des Petits-Champs, Mazarin occupied a suite of apartments in the Basse- 
cour of the Palais-Royal, opening on to the Rue des Bons-Enfants, 
which enabled him to have constant access to the Queen, whose apart- 
ments were situated in the right wing of the Cour des Proues, the only 
part of the Palais-Royal, it may be remarked, which still retains some 
traces of its primitive ornamentation. These apartments had been left in 
an unfinished state by Richelieu, but they had been completed by order of 
the Queen, who had added an oratory, a bath-room, and a gallery. It 
was in this gallery, which connected the apartments of the Queen with 
those of the Cardinal, that the meetings of the Council were usually held, 
and it was here that, on 18 January 1650, took place the arrest of the 
three princes — Conde, Conti, and Longueville. 

At the time when he became chief Minister, Mazarin occupied the 
Hotel de Cloves, situated in the Rue du Louvre, called also the Rue 
de l'Oratoire. This hotel, which was demolished in 1758, had been 
erected for Catherine de Cloves, widow of Henri, Due de Guise, 
assassinated at Blois in 1588. After the discovery of the Due de 
Beaufort's plot against his life, in September 1643, the Cardinal, feeling 
that he was no longer in security at the Hotel de Cleves, vacated it for 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 5 

however, greeted them very kindly, thought them 
pretty, "and all the time the children spent in her 
presence was employed in remarking on their appear- 
ance." After her Majesty had dismissed them, they 
were taken to the Cardinal, " who did not appear to care 
much for them ; on the contrary, he jested about those 
who were silly enough to show them attentions. But, 
despite this scorn, he certainly had great designs based 
on these little girls. His indifference about them was 
all pure comedy ; and by this we may judge that it is 
not only on the comic stage that good pieces are 
played." 1 

The following day, the nieces were again brought to 
the Queen, who received them as kindly as before, and 
" kept them some minutes near her to examine them." 
Their uncle was again present, but, as on the previous 
day, affected hardly to notice them. After this they 
were shown to the Court, and the time-serving 
courtiers, undeceived by the Cardinal's seeming in- 
difference, crowded so eagerly round the new arrivals 
that there seemed some danger of them being suffo- 
cated by the press, and vied with one another in 
extolling their beauty, their charming manners, and 
their intelligence, " which they credited them with on 
sight." " See those little girls," remarked the wife of 
Marechal de Villeroi to Gaston d'Orleans, the King's 
uncle, " who are now not rich ; they will soon have 
fine chateaux, large incomes, splendid jewels, beautiful 
silver, and perhaps great dignities. . . ." The marechale 
was a true prophet. It was evident that the first families 

the apartments in the Palais-Royal, or Palais-Cardinal as it was then 
called, which had been bequeathed by Richelieu to the late king, and 
whither the whole Court removed from the Louvre, a few weeks later. 
— Amedee Renee, " Les Nieces de Mazarin." 
1 Madame de Motteville, " Memoires." 



6 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

of the realm would be ready to dispute the hand of the 
Cardinal's nieces, and that he would have only to choose 
amongst the wealthiest, the most powerful, and the most 
illustrious, to efface, by brilliant alliances, his own humble 
origin and establish his power on a sure foundation. 

The three girls were at first installed at the Hotel de 
Cleves, in charge of Madame de Senece, formerly 
gouvernante to the young king ; while Paul Mancini was 
sent to be educated by the Jesuits at their college at 
Clermont, where he was allotted the room formerly 
occupied by the Prince de Conti, and treated in all 
respects as if he were a Prince of the Blood. Soon, 
at the instance of the Queen, the nieces were trans- 
ferred to the Palais-Royal, to be brought up with 
Louis XIV and his younger brother, the little Due 
d'Anjou ; but the Queen herself instructed them in 
religion, frequently taking them with her to benefit by 
the saintly conversation of the nuns of Val-de-Grace, 
and treating them with the same tenderness as her own 
children. 

There is, perhaps, no stronger proof of Anne's devo- 
tion to Mazarin than the manner in which she occupied 
herself with these girls; and here it may not be out 
of place to devote some little space to a question which, 
though it has been discussed ad nauseam by French 
writers, seems to us to have hardly received satisfactory 
treatment from English and American historians : the 
relations between the Queen-Mother and the Cardinal. 

At the accession of Louis XIV (14 May 1643), 
Mazarin's position in France was a most precarious 
one. Surrounded as he was by powerful enemies eager 
to undo the work of Richelieu, and regarded by the 
bulk of the nation with dislike and suspicion, on account 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 7 

of his foreign birth, he quickly perceived that his sole 
chance of making head against the forces arrayed 
against him lay in securing the unequivocal favour of 
the Queen-Mother, and to this end all his energies 
were forthwith directed. 

Anne of Austria had then just passed her fortieth 
year. She was very devout, but also very coquettish, 
in a romantic and strictly decorous way, attaching great 
importance to high-flown compliments, languishing 
looks, and delicate little attentions. Had Richelieu 
condescended to such means to conciliate her, it is 
possible that he might have gained as much influence 
over her as Mazarin subsequently enjoyed. But the 
great Cardinal was " pidant en amour" to borrow the ex- 
pression of Anne's confidante, Madame de Chevreuse, 
an unforgivable fault in her Majesty's eyes. 

Mazarin profited by his predecessor's failure. He 
pretended to be madly in love, and yet overwhelmed 
by the sense of his own unworthiness. He had 
nothing, he said, but his devotion to plead for him ; 
he was more lowly than the grass before his goddess. 
His handsome face, his charming manners, the superi- 
ority of his intellect, his unswerving devotion to her 
interests and those of her infant son, all combined to 
flatter the amour propre of the Queen. He succeeded, 
and succeeded beyond his most sanguine expectations. 

Yet, his success was not immediate. He had to over- 
come not only indifference, but a feeling well-nigh 
amounting to aversion on the part of Anne, who had 
long regarded him merely as the creature of Richelieu, 
and for some weeks his fate trembled in the balance. 
His Camels, which reveal to us the inmost workings of 
this subtle mind, show that in the summer of 1643 ne 
himself was doubtful as to the issue, for he complains 



8 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

of Anne's dissimulation, and that her entire confidence 
was not given him. By September, however, that 
distrust is dispelled. " I should no longer doubt," he 
writes, " since the Queen, in an excess of goodness, has 
told me that nothing can take from me the part which 
she has graciously given me." 

What that part was has, as we have said elsewhere, 
been much debated. According to a curious anecdote, 
which Brienne relates in his " Memoires," Anne herself 
protested that the Cardinal's attraction for her was of a 
purely intellectual order. 

One day, Madame de Brienne, the wife of the secre- 
tary, was in the Queen's oratory, when Anne entered, 
her beads in her hand, plunged in a profound reverie. 
" Let us pray together," said she ; " we shall be the 
better heard." As they rose from their devotions, 
Madame de Brienne craved permission to speak to the 
Queen, in regard to her Majesty's relations with the 
Cardinal. Anne consented, and was accordingly in- 
formed of all that malicious tongues were saying. The 
Queen blushed, and tears filled her eyes. " Why have 
you not told me this before ? " said she. " I confess 
that I am attached to him — I can even say tenderly ; but 
my affection does not go so far as love, or, if it does, I 
am not aware of it. My senses have no part ; only my 
mind is charmed by the beauty of his intellect. If this 
is wrong, I will renounce it before God and the saints. 
I will speak to him no more, save of the affairs of 
State, and check him when he speaks of anything 
else." Madame de Brienne then asked the Queen 
to swear on some relics of the saints which were in 
the oratory, that " she would never abandon what she 
had promised God," a request with which her Majesty 
complied readily enough. " God's goodness," said the 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 9 

pious confidante, " will soon make your innocence 
known." 

"Anne, however, had taken oaths before," observes 
Mazarin's able American biographer, Mr. J. B. Perkins, 
"and the remembrance of Val-de-Grace makes us 
doubtful whether simple admiration for beauty of mind 
could have withstood the shock of circumstance and 
survived the lapse of years." 1 

However that may be, the tone of the Queen's letters 
to the Cardinal is strangely inconsistent with her pro- 
testations to Madame de Brienne. During Mazarin's 
second exile, in 1652, Anne concludes one of her letters 
to him with this passionate cry : " 1 5 [the Queen] is a 
thousand times „-£ [yours] until the last sigh. Adieu, 
I can write no more, and he [Mazarin] knows why." 2 
And again, some months later, when the Cardinal was 
with the army, she writes : " I cannot but tell you that 
I think the sight of those one loves is not unpleasant, 
even if it be but for a few hours. I fear that your 
fondness for the army will be greater than all others. 
Still, I pray you to believe me that I shall be always what 
I should be, come what will." 

The years bring no change in the warmth of these 
epistles. "Your letter," she writes, in June, 1660, 
" has given me great joy. If I had believed that one of 
my letters would have thus pleased you, I would have 

1 " France under Richelieu and Mazarin." 

2 In their private correspondence, the Queen and Mazarin employed 
certain signs or ciphers, of which the key exists. The numbers 16, 22, 
and 24 indicate the Queen ; the numbers 1 5, 26, and 46 indicate 
Mazarin. The Queen is likewise designated under the names of Seraphim 
and Jnge, and Mazarin under those of le del and la Met: Frequently, 
in his letters, Mazarin speaks of himself as a third person, to deceive any 
one into whose hands the letters might fall. Finally, the curious signs 
j £ ^f indicate the affection or love of the Cardinal for the Queen and of 
the Queen for the Cardinal. 



io FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

written it gladly. To see the pleasure with which it 
was received makes me recall another time, which in- 
deed I do recall almost every minute. Though you 
may doubt it, if I could make you see my heart as well 
as what I say on this paper, you would be satisfied, or 
you would be the most ungrateful man in the world; 
and I do not believe you are that." 

The letters of Mazarin are in the same tone. " Mon 
Dlcu ! How happy should 1 be and you satisfied," he 
writes from Bruhl, in May 1651, " if you could see my 
heart, or if I could write what is in it ! You would not 
find it difficult in that case, to agree that never was 
there a friendship approaching that which I entertain for 
you. I confess to you that 1 little imagined that it 
would go so far as to deprive me of all contentment, 
when my time is employed in anything else than in 
thinking of you." 1 

He knew the extent of his empire, did this astute 
Italian, and he exulted in reminding his royal conquest 
of it. "If you were nearer the sea [Mazarin], 1 believe 
that you would be more pleased. I trust that that will 
be soon." 

It has frequently been claimed that the Queen and 
the Cardinal were secretly married. Such was the 
tradition preserved at the Palais-Royal, as the letters 
of the Duchesse d'Orleans, mother of the Regent, 
prove.' 2 The same charge, too, is to be found in many 
of the pamphlets published during the Fronde, and has 
been accepted by more than one historian of weight, 
who argue that a woman of Anne's extravagant piety 

1 For the rest of this letter, see p. 25 infra. 

2 "The Queen-Mother, widow of Louis XIII, did more than love 
Cardinal Mazarin ; she married him." — " Correspondance complete de 
Madame, Duchesse d'Orleans," publnc par G. Brunet, 1855, II, p. 3. 







CARDINAL MAZARIN 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS n 

would have recoiled with horror from any connection 
unsanctioned by Holy Church. 

Those who hold this view, of course, start with the 
assumption that Mazarin was only in minor Orders, and 
therefore would have been free to marry had he been so 
disposed. This was certainly the opinion of his con- 
temporaries, and the Abbe de Laffmas, in a rhyming 
letter which he addressed to the Cardinal in 1649, savs : — 

Vous etes un grand cardinal, 
Un homme de haute entreprise, 
Vingt fois abbe, homme de l'eglise, 
Quoique ne soyez in sacris. . . . 

Aubery ("Histoire de Cardinal Mazarin") and Victor 
Cousin (" La Jeunesse de Mazarin) pronounce also for 
the negative, as does M. Cheruel (" Histoire de France 
pendant la minorite de Louis XIV "). On the other 
hand, Amedee Renee, in his "Nieces de Mazarin," and 
that indefatigable unraveller of historical mysteries 
M. Jules Loiseleur maintain that Mazarin was in full 
Orders. The latter writer's arguments are interesting. 

" The minutes of the proceedings of the consistory 
of 16 December 1641," he writes, "preserved in the 
Vatican Archives, at which he (Mazarin) was preconised 
cardinal, qualifies him as cardinal of Saint Jean-de- 
Latran. No mention is made of his quality of priest, 
mention useless, in point of fact, and which would have 
been without any object, since his title of canon is spoken 
of, which supposes that quality. When an ecclesiastic 
is spoken of as canon or bishop, no one thinks of adding 
that he is a priest ; that goes without saying. 

" Perhaps it may be objected that the kings of France 
were honorary canons of various churches, and that 
possibly Mazarin may have received the same honour. 
To this we reply that the minutes of the proceedings of 



12 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

the consistory do not speak of Mazarin as an honorary 
canon, but as an ordinary canon : canonicus Lateranensis. 
Further, Saint Jean-de-Latran is a Roman church, and 
only persons in Holy Orders were admitted to the 
canonicates of these kind of basilicas." 1 

These arguments seem sound enough, but M. 
Loiseleur was apparently unaware at the time when he 
wrote his book of the existence of a letter of the Cardinal 
which M. Cheruel cites in his " Histoire de France 
pendant la minorite de Louis XIV." This letter, 
addressed to one of his confidants, Elphideo Benedetti, 
was written when Mazarin was in exile at Bruhl in 
1 65 1, and had some thought of visiting Rome. "As 
for the difficulty created by the Bull which deals with 
those not in Orders, one ought," he writes, " especially 
to consider the deprivation of the right of voting in the 
Conclave, and, in regard to that, I should desire to know 
whether, in the event of my taking Holy Orders, I should 
have the right of voting without any other dispensation 
being necessary." This passage, in the opinion of 
M. Cheruel, is a conclusive proof that Mazarin was 
only a lay cardinal, and most people, we think, will be 
inclined to agree with him. 

M. Loiseleur, however, is on much surer ground when 
he proceeds to argue that, whether Mazarin was a lay 
cardinal or a cardinal-priest, he would equally have been 
unable to contract a marriage without a special dispensa- 
tion from the Pope, and that such a dispensation had 
never been granted, except on the condition of the 
intending Benedict resigning his membership of the 
Sacred College. 

" M. Michelet," says he, " is correct in asserting that 
there are examples of cardinal-princes whom Rome has 

1 " Problemes historiques." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 13 

discardinalized, when some great political necessity- 
obliged them to marry. We do not think that many- 
such examples may be cited, but there is one at least. 
It is that of Cardinal Jean Casimir, elected King of 
Poland in 1649, wno was relieved of his vows by the 
Pope and married his brother's widow, Marie de 
Gonzague. But, before he married, Casimir V laid 
aside the purple ; he did not remain a cardinal. That 
is, in fact, the question, and we defy any one to cite a 
single cardinal, lay or not, whom Rome has permitted 
to marry and still to remain a cardinal. And Mazarin 
died a cardinal, for, in his last moments, the Nuncio 
Piccolomini administered the Indulgence in artkulo 
mortis^ which the Popes are in the habit of according to 
members of the Sacred College." 

M. Loiseleur then goes on to point out that, if the 
Holy See, in defiance of all ecclesiastical usage, had 
accorded Mazarin permission to marry and still to retain 
the external apparel of his former dignity, the dispensa- 
tion must have been granted either by Urban VIII, 
who died 28 July 1644, or by Innocent X, who suc- 
ceeded him and lived till 1655. But it could hardly 
have been by Urban, he says, for we know, from a 
report of Mazarin's secret police, that, towards the end 
of October 1643, tnree nuns of Val-de-Grace, intimate 
friends of the Queen, took upon themselves to send 
her Majesty a vigorously-worded remonstrance on the 
subject of her relations with the Cardinal, a remon- 
strance which would have been entirely purposeless, if, 
at this period, these relations had been legitimated by 
marriage. "Nor is that all. Certain notes of the 
Cardinal's fourth carnet^ which comprises the end of the 
year 1643 an< ^ tne beginning of 1644, and other notes 
of the fifth carnet, which extends down to 28 August of 



i 4 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

the latter year, show us that about the time of the death 
of Urban VIII the convents were still inveighing against 
Mazarin, influenced principally by his scandalous rela- 
tions with the Queen, a fact which is inexplicable, suppos- 
ing that a dispensation had been granted by the Pope ; for 
the Queen, who had no secrets from her good friends 
of Val-de-Grace, would not have failed to close their 
mouths by communicating to them the dispensation, if 
it had existed, and Pere Vincent, 1 to whom was attributed 
the celebration of the marriage, would not have found 
himself included in the recriminations consigned to the 
famous carnets." 

"As for Innocent X," continues M. Loiseleur, "he 
remained throughout his pontificate the bitter and per- 
sistent enemy of Mazarin, and no one in Europe was 
less likely to go out of his way to do the Cardinal a 
favour." 

This would seem to us to render a marriage between 
the Cardinal and Anne of Austria extremely improbable, 
though it is just conceivable, as more than one writer 
has suggested, that Mazarin may have intimidated 
Innocent X, by the threat of the annexation of Avignon, 
into granting the necessary dispensation and also into 
maintaining silence in regard to it. 

1 Saint-Vincent de Paul. 



CHAPTER II 

Beginning of the Fronde — The Cardinal sends his nieces to Val-de- 
Grace — His plans for their establishment — Declines the offer of 
Cardinal Barberini to marry his nephew to Laure Mancini — Looks 
with favour upon the Due de Candale — Arranges a marriage between 
Laure and the Due de Mercoeur — The Prince de Conde opposed 
to the match — Intrigues of the Marquis de Jarze to supplant the 
Cardinal in the affections of the Queen — His presumption punished 
by Anne of Austria — Mazarin insulted by Conde — Renewal of the 
civil war — The Cardinal leaves the kingdom — Exultation of his 
enemies — The Mazarinades — The cardinal's nieces follows him into 
exile— He establishes himself at Briihl — Marriage of the Due de 
Mercoeur and Laure Mancini — Mazarin continues to direct affairs in 
France — He raises an army and recrosses the frontier — His letter to 
the Queen — He joins their Majesties at Poitiers — Return of his nieces 
to Paris — Battle of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and death of Paul 
Mancini — Hatred of the Parisians against Mazarin — His second 
exile — Tender letter of the Queen to the Cardinal — He is recalled to 
France — His triumphant return. 

T>UT to return to the Mancini. 

At the beginning of the year 1649, c ^ vl ^ war 
broke out — that curious medley of tragedy and bur- 
lesque known as the Fronde, and on 5 January the 
Court quitted Paris for Saint-Germain, while the 
Cardinal's nieces were confided to the care of the nuns 
of Val-de-Grace. August found Court and Cardinal 
once more at the Palais-Royal, the Treaty of Ruel 
having cleared the air for the time being. But Mazarin, 
perceiving that a second storm was brewing, judged it 
best to allow his nieces to remain in security. 

In the meanwhile, he had begun to busy himself with 

15 



1 6 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

plans for their establishment in life ; plans in which, it 
is hardly necessary to observe, the happiness of the 
young ladies themselves counted for very little. The 
eldest of the Mancini sisters, Laure, was now fifteen, 
and suitors had already begun to present themselves. 
Cardinal Barberini had made overtures on behalf of his 
nephew, a Colonna ; but Mazarin demurred to this 
proposal and suggested in preference one of the younger 
girls, who was still at Rome in a convent ; for, wrote he, 
"your proposition would disarrange the plans I have 
made for establishing all the others in France." This 
Mancini offered as a pis-aller was without doubt Marie, 
who was one day to become the wife of another Colonna. 
She was then at most ten years old, which fact, however, 
did not prevent her politic uncle from drawing up the 
articles of the marriage-contract. 

At the time this letter was written, Mazarin had cast 
a favourable eye upon the Due de Candale, the heir of 
the Epernons, " the first nobleman of the Court in 
good looks, magnificence, and riches, whom all the men 
envied, and whose regard all the gallant ladies desired to 
merit ; if they were not able to make him the trophy of 
their glory." 1 We may presume that the riches and 
the renown of his House counted for far more in the 
Cardinal's eyes than the good looks. But the young 
gentleman was in no hurry to exchange the role of 
Lothario for that of Benedick, and nothing came of 
the project ; though the probability of the duke allying 

1 Madame de Motteville, " Memoires." Bussy-Rabutin, in his 
" Histoire amoureuse des Gaules," has traced the following portrait of 
this personage : " The Due de Candale had blue eyes, a well-made 
nose, irregular features, a large and disagreeable mouth, very beautiful 
teeth, and golden blond hair in the greatest profusion possible to imagine ; 
he had an admirable figure, dressed well, and had the air of a man of the 
first quality." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 17 

himself with one of the other sisters was a frequent 
topic of discussion down to 1668, when a fever, or, if we 
are to believe Daniel de Cosnac, poison administered by 
a jealous husband, cut short his career of gallantry and 
plunged half the ladies of the Court into an ecstasy of 
grief." 1 

It was perhaps fortunate for Laure Mancini that 
M. de Candale was so reluctant to enter the holy estate, 
since a gentleman of so very susceptible a disposition 
could scarcely have been expected to make a model 
husband. Soon, however, another and — for the lady at 
least — a far more desirable parti was forthcoming, in the 
person of the Due de Mercceur, whose father, the Due 
de Vendome, was the son of Henri IV and the beauti- 
ful Gabrielle d'Estrees. Mercceur had none of the 
ardent blood of his grandparents, or of the ambitious 
and turbulent disposition of his father and brother, the 



1 His friend Saint-Evremond describes, with all the interest of a 
public event, the universal grief which his untimely death occasioned 
among the fair : " The last years of his life, all our ladies cast their eyes 
on him. The most retiring did not allow themselves to sigh in secret ; 
the most gallant disputed for him, and desired to possess him as their 
most glorious conquest. After having divided them in the interests of 
gallantry, he reunited them in tears by his death. Those whom he had 
once loved recalled their old sentiments, and imagined that they had still 
to lose what they had already lost. Several who had been indifferent to 
him nattered themselves that they would not have been always thus, and, 
laying the blame on death, which had forestalled their happiness, they 
wept for this amiable man of whom they might have been the beloved. 
Finally, there were even some who regretted him through vanity, and one 
saw unknown ladies insinuate themselves into this commerce of tears, in 
order to get the credit of being gallant." 

More than one disconsolate beauty cut off her hair in despair at the 
news of his death, among them the Marquise de la Baume, niece of the 
Marechal de Villeroi, " who had the most beautiful fair hair in the world." 
The celebrated Comtesse d'Olonne, one of the latest of Candale's loves, 
Mile, de Montpensier tells us, spent the whole night in tears, and on 
being questioned by her husband as to the cause of her grief, " begged him 
to forgive her and confessed that she had loved him (Candale) dearly." 



1 8 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Due de Beaufort, the famous " Rot des Halles" but was 
in all respects an excellent man, amiable, pious, and 
gentle. Vendome had grown weary of opposition to 
the Court, which had brought him nothing but exile and 
imprisonment, and was ready enough to accept the good 
things which an alliance with the Cardinal's family would 
ensure him ; while, on his side, Mazarin hoped to 
oppose the influence of Vendome to that of the Prince 
de Conde and to gain over Beaufort. 

The marriage was agreed upon. Vendome was to 
receive the admiralty. Mercceur was to have for 
dowry 600,000 livres and the first vacant government. 
But Conde had become more troublesome than all the 
Frondeurs ; he had compelled Mazarin to enter into an 
agreement not to marry his nieces without obtaining his 
sanction, and, though he had at first raised no objection 
to the alliance, as the time for its consummation 
approached, he became opposed to a step which would 
make Mazarin less dependent and Vendome more 
powerful, and declined to sign the contract. He now 
accused the Cardinal of having broken faith with him 
in regard to the government of Font-de-V 'Arche, in 
Normandy, and began to intrigue vigorously against 
him. Prompted by the prince, one of his proteges the 
Marquis de Jarze, "who was by nature brusque, con- 
ceited, satirical, and frivolous," dared to raise his eyes to 
the Queen, in the hope of supplanting the Cardinal in 
her mature affections. This intrigue became an affair of 
State, which greatly preoccupied both the Regent and her 
Minister, and, on the advice of the latter, Anne adminis- 
tered a severe and well-merited rebuff to the presumptu- 
ous Jarze. Madame de Motteville, an eye-witness, has 
left us the following account of this little comedy : — 

" As Jarze knew, to some extent, by the dismissal of 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 19 

his friend Madame de Beauvais (a waiting-woman of the 
Queen, who had lent herself to the designs of Jarze and 
had just been exiled on the Cardinal's demand), his posi- 
tion at Court, he thought to execute a clever stroke 
of policy by appearing to know nothing and to fear 
nothing. But the hour had come when he was fated to 
be punished for his presumption. The Queen, having 
it in her mind to rebuke him, did not fail the moment 
she saw him to attack him and to say to him, in a con- 
temptuous tone, these very words : c Really, M. de 
Jarze, you are very ridiculous. I am told that you play 
the lover. A pretty gallant, forsooth ! I pity you ; 
they will have to send you to the Petites-Maisons. 
Though it is true that we need not be astonished at 
your madness, since it is inherited ! ' — meaning by that 
his grandfather, Marechal de Lavardin, who was passion- 
ately in love with the late Queen, Marie de' Medici, and 
about whom her husband Henri IV used to jest with 
her. 

"Poor Jarze was overwhelmed by this thunderbolt. 
He dared not say a word in his justification. He 
stammered and left the cabinet, full of trouble, pale 
and undone. In spite of his mortification, he perhaps 
flattered himself with the reflection that the adventure 
was a fine one, the crime honourable, and that he had 
no cause to be ashamed of the accusation. The whole 
Court was instantly full of the event ; the ruelles of the 
ladies rang with the sound of the royal words. The 
name of Jarze was heard everywhere in Paris, and the 
provinces quickly had their share of it." 

Jarze's disgrace and the refusal of the Queen to 
pardon him put the comble upon the discontent of 
Conde. The hollow truce could not last long, and 
it was broken on the day when the haughty soldier 



20 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

addressed to the Cardinal a letter bearing on its cover 
the insulting words, " AW illustrissimo signor Facchino." 

The arrest of the princes Conde, Conti, and 
Longueville, on 18 January 1650, did not arrest the 
disorder, and, seeing the revolt gaining ground in the 
provinces, the Parliament of Paris, fulminating decrees 
against him 1 and Gaston d'Orleans at the head of the 
Fronde, Mazarin judged it prudent to leave the king- 
dom. On the night of 6-7 February 1651, he quitted 
the Palais-Royal, in disguise, followed by the Comte de 
Broglie and another gentleman, and took the road to 
Havre. Here he stopped to liberate the imprisoned 
princes, who had been transferred thither from Mar- 
coussis at the end of the previous November, 2 after 
which he continued his journey to the frontier, by way 
of Abbeville and Doullens. 

The Frondeurs sang paeans of triumph over the 
discomfiture and disappearance of their enemy. The 
pamphlets — those famous Mazarinades, which had 
rained upon the Cardinal since the beginning of the 
Fronde — redoubled in numbers and bitterness, and whole 
volumes might be filled with the libels in prose and 
verse that flowed from the pens of the opposition 
scribes and rhymesters in the spring of 1651. "The 
care that the Cardinal bestowed upon his person and his 
dress, his beautiful white hands, his carefully-trimmed 
moustache, his lemonades, his ragouts, his pastry, even 
his bread, all those importations of refined elegance and 

1 On 3 November 1750, the Parliament condemned Mazarin to be 
hanged in effigy in four different places. " Que ledit Cardinal" ran the 
decree, " reconnu coupable du crime de traison a ete condamne d'etre pendu 
en effigie . . . le 3 November 1650." 

2 Montglat says : " The Cardinal asked the princes for their friend- 
ship, but they, judging truly of the situation, promised him ' all that he 
wanted of it.' " 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 21 

Italian voluptuousness ; his palace, with its picture- 
galleries, its statues, and its vast stables — all furnished 
material for the satirist : 

Adieu, done, pauvre Mazarin ! 
Adieu, mon pauvre Tabarin ; 
Adieu, Voncle aux Mazarinettes ; 
Adieu, pere aux marionettes ; 
Adieu, le plus beau des galans 5 
Adieu, buveur des lemonades ; 
Adieu, l'inventeur des pommades j 
Adieu l'homme aux bonnes senteurs ! l 

Needless to say, the " Mazarinettes " and every 
member known and unknown of the Minister's family 
had their share in this deluge of facetiousness and 
obscenity, for few of the lampoons were of so harmless 
a character as the specimen we have just cited, and no 
abuse, no insinuation, no accusation was too gross to 
heap upon the exiled Cardinal ; nor was the reputation 
of the Queen-Mother respected, as the pieces entitled 
Les Soupers des Fleurs de lys and Le Custode du lit de la 
Reine 2 will testify. 

A decree of the Parliament of Paris had expelled the 
nephew and nieces of the Cardinal from France. The 
latter quitted the capital almost immediately after their 
uncle, and joined him at Peronne, whither Marechal 
d'Hocquincourt had conducted them. It was well that 
they did not delay their departure, otherwise they might 
have been roughly handled. Popular credulity suspected 
the Cardinal of being concealed in Paris ; and a report 
spread that he was at Val-de -Grace, disguised as a 

1 Amedee Renee, " Les Nieces de Mazarin." 

2 The writer of this libel, one Claude Morlot by name, was condemned 
to be hanged, but was rescued by the mob, who put the archers and the 
executioners to flight and pulled down the gibbet. 



22 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

nun, and that the Queen went there secretly to visit 

On disoit que le Mazarin 

Tous les jours chantoit au lutrin 

En habit de religieuse. 

It was also believed that the nieces had taken refuge 
in the city ; crowds collected before the houses in which 
they were said to be concealed, and ransacked several of 
them from cellar to attic. 

La canaille rien ne trouva, 

Mais jura de mettre en cent pieces 

Tous ceux qui logeroient les nieces. 1 

It is evident from the fact that Mazarin did not deem it 
necessary to send the children to their parents in Rome 
that he was of opinion that his exile would be but a 
temporary one. He left Peronne, with his nieces and 
nephew, to establish himself in some town beyond the 
frontier. At Clermont, in Argonne, he was received 
by Marechal de la Ferte, in spite of the decrees of the 
Parliament, while Fabert, the commandant of Sedan, 
begged him to take refuge there, although an order 
wrung from the unfortunate Queen directed her friend 
to leave the realm. The Cardinal declined Fabert's 
offer, but left his young relatives in his charge until he 
had decided upon his place of exile. He finally chose 
the town of Briihl, within a short distance of Cologne. 

One of the most interesting episodes of Mazarin's 
sojourn at Briihl was the marriage of Laure Mancini. 
Laure, as we have already mentioned, had been be- 
trothed to the Due de Mercceur, eldest son of the Due 
de Vendome and brother of " le Roi des Halles" But 
the renewal of the civil war had caused the marriage to 
be postponed, and the ruin of the Cardinal's fortunes 

1 Loret, " La Muse historique." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 23 

encouraged a belief that it would never take place. 
The amiable and honest Mercceur, however, was faithful 
to his engagements and to the sentiments with which 
the beautiful Laure had inspired him, and, ignoring the 
decrees prohibiting all communication with the exiled 
Minister, set out for Bruhl, where he espoused privately, 
but in good and due form, his young bride, furnished 
with the consent of the King, the Queen, and even of 
Gaston d'Orleans, who subsequently vainly pretended 
to have revoked it. 1 

Such disinterestedness appeared the height of folly to 
the selfish courtiers, and, on his return to Paris, the 
poor duke found himself rallied on all sides, and held 
up to ridicule and odium by the pamphleteers of the 
Fronde. Moreover, he had to submit to a trying 
ordeal, for Conde, furious at the marriage, accused him 
in the Parliament of having infringed its decrees, by 
having had relations with the Cardinal and his family, 
and Mercceur, as a pair de France, had to appear before 
the assembled Chambers to give an explanation of his 
conduct. He defended himself to the best of his 
ability, asserting that the marriage had taken place prior 
to the flight of the Cardinal, and that he had undertaken 
the journey to Bruhl to see not the Minister, but his 
wife. The Parliament directed that the marriage con- 
tract should be laid before it, and the scene terminated 
by a decree " prohibiting the said Mancini from enter- 
ing the kingdom or residing therein under pretext of 
this union." 

The Queen had taken great interest in this matter, 

1 The marriage contract was subsequently renewed at the Louvre 
(29 May, 1654.) before the King's notaries, in the presence of their 
Majesties, the Due d'Anjou, and other distinguished persons. The 
Cardinal gave his niece a dowry of 600,000 livres in cash, and the King 
presented the happy pair with the sum of 100,000 livres. 



24 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

and was highly indignant at the insulting treatment to 
which the Due de Mercceur was being subjected. " She 
charged me," writes de Retz, " to implore Monsieur 
[Gaston d'Orleans], in her name, to prevent this affair 
from being carried any further ; she spoke to him with 
tears in her eyes, and showed me plainly that she was 
always herself most sensible to what she believed most 
affected the Cardinal." l 

Thus the astute Italian, even in the midst of his 
misfortunes, had succeeded in marrying his niece to a 
grandson of Henri IV. But his Carnets show us that 
he had hoped for greater things. He had hoped to 
make a " grand coup" by marrying the two brothers at 
the same time to two of his nieces. " If one could 
completely gain over the Due de Beaufort by an alliance," 
he writes, " I could give the two nieces to the two 
brothers, and give the younger [Beaufort] the govern- 
ment of Paris, and treat even for that of Ile-de-France. 
And, with that, one would make a grand coup, for, 
possessing the affection of the people in the said town, 
he would be in a position to one day render some 
considerable service to the King." 

From his retreat at Briihl, Mazarin continued to 
direct the policy of his party in France. With the 
Queen he kept up an active and secret correspondence, 
by means of his confidential agent Bartet and other 
skilful emissaries. A part of this correspondence still 
exists, and shows us Mazarin adroitly combining sage 
political counsel with assurances of the most ardent 
devotion. 

1 " Memoires du Cardinal de Retz." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 25 

Mazarin to the Queen. 

" From Briihl, xi May 1 65 1. 

"Mon Dieu ! How happy should I be and you satis- 
fied, if you could see into my heart, or if I could write 
to you what is in it ! You would not find it difficult, in 
that case, to agree that never was there a friendship 
approaching that which I entertain for you. I confess to 
you that I little imagined that it would go so far as 
to deprive me of all contentment, when my time is 
employed in anything else than in thinking of you. 

"I wish, also, that I had the power to express my 
hatred for those indiscreet persons who labour without 
ceasing to make you forget me and to hinder us from 
meeting again : in a word, it is proportioned to the 
friendship which I bear you. They are mistaken, if 
they hope to see in us the effects of absence ; and if that 
Spaniard said that the mountains of Guadarrama have 
great difficulty in dividing two good friends . . . 

" If my misfortunes are not speedily remedied, I 
cannot answer for being wise to the end, for this great 
prudence ill accords with a passion such as mine. 

" Perhaps I am wrong, for which I crave your pardon ; 
but I believe that, were I in your place, I should have 
already gone far to find a way for the Friend to see me 
again. . . . Write to me, I entreat you, and say if I 
shall see you and when : for this state of things cannot last, 
even should I perish. The greatest enemy that I have 
in the world, I should love as my own life, and with all 
my heart, if he could contrive so that I might see Serafin 
[the Queen] again. . . ." x 

And for his sake the Queen, this woman ordinarily so 

1 Published by Amedee Renee, " Les Nieces de Mazarin." 



26 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

indolent, so changeable in her affections, braved every- 
thing : the outrageous attacks of the rhymesters of the 
Fronde, the mockery of high and low, the civil war, 
ready to lose her crown, and her son's crown also, rather 
than abandon the man who possessed her heart. 

On the advice of the Cardinal, the Queen feigned to 
be reconciled to Conde, the intention being to render 
him an object of suspicion to the Frondeurs. In this 
she succeeded, and that doughty intriguer, indignant at 
finding that all the promises that had been made to him 
were not kept, declined to attend the Bed of Justice of 
7 September, 1751, at which the young King, being 
then fourteen, declared himself of age, and retired to 
his government of Guienne, where he prepared for war, 
and did not hesitate to ally himself with the Spaniards. 

After a year's residence at Briihl, Mazajin resolved 
to make an attempt to re-enter the kingdom. During 
the early days of his exile, he appears to have been 
in considerable financial embarrassment. The greater 
part of his property, including his palace and its treas- 
ures, had been confiscated by a decree of the Parliament, 
and, as he had brought very little money away with 
him, his family suffered some privations. After a while, 
however, the Queen contrived to provide him with 
funds, and by January 1652, he was in possession of 
sufficient to raise an army of 6000 men, at the head of 
which he repassed the frontier. 

On learning of their enemy's return, the Parliament 
hastened to set a price on his head. The decree directed 
that his library and his furniture should be sold, the 
proceeds to go towards the sum of 150,000 livres 
offered to the person who should deliver him up alive 
or dead. This library, formed at such great expense, was 
sold by auction and dispersed, the King's uncle, Gaston 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 27 

d'Orleans, a rival bibliophile, spitefully insisting that it 
should be disposed of in detail. 1 

Seeing the moment of his reunion with the Queen 
approaching, Mazarin redoubled the expressions of 
tenderness in the letters which he addressed to his 
middle-aged Dulcinea. Marechal de Villeroi had insisted 
on the King and Queen undertaking a journey to 
Poitiers, and afterwards to Guienne, with the object of 
placing as great a distance as possible between them and 
the Cardinal. 

"The poor man ought to know," writes Mazarin, 
" that the friendship which 22 [the Queen] has for 
26 [Mazarin] is easily proof against other things than 
a separation of a hundred leagues more, and that the 
interposition of a part of the world between these 
two persons would not be capable of terminating it, 
whatever one might say. I promise you that until 26 
[Mazarin] can be with you, who will tell you more in an 
hour than I could write in two months, I will communi- 
cate with you every three or four days to give you my 
news. However, I thank you for the suggestion you 
have made, for there is nothing so obliging, and I see 
very well that your heart speaks, and that I am 
greatly deceived if you have not as much friendship for 
me as 26 has for 22, whom you know well enough has 
more merit than any one in the world, saving you only 

1 Mazarin felt the loss of his books keenly. " I notice," he writes 
from Pont-sur-Yonne, 11 January 1752, "the precipitation with which 
they wish to sell my library, and I am informed that his Royal Highness 
[Gaston d'Orleans] insisted that it should be sold in detail, in order to 
injure me the sooner. It will be a fine thing to read in history that 
Cardinal Mazarin, having taken so much care for thirty years to enrich, 
with the most beautiful and rarest books in the world, a library which he 
intended to present to the public, the Parliament of Paris decreed that it 
should be sold, and the money accruing therefrom should be employed to 
cause the said Cardinal to be assassinated." 



28 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

of the number, since, without contradiction, there is no 
one who can contest that quality with you." 

Mazarin, at the head of his troops, who wore the 
green scarf of his House, entered Sedan, where his 
devoted friend Fabert received him with open arms. He 
seems to have left his nieces in charge of this loyal 
soldier until his fate should be decided, after which he 
resumed his march towards Poitiers, accompanied by his 
nephew Paul Mancini, a youth of great promise, who 
was generally popular. 

In spite of all the efforts of the Parliament to prevent 
his return ; in spite of the deputation which that body 
despatched to Poitiers, to demand of the King that he 
should " keep this foreigner at a distance, not only from 
his counsels, but also from the whole extent of the lands 
which owed him obedience, and even from the frontier" ; 
in spite of all obstacles, on 30 January, 1752, Mazarin 
arrived at Poitiers, riding in triumph in the King's 
coach, preceded by Louis himself and his little brother, 
the Due d'Anjou. The Queen, we may presume, re- 
ceived the Cardinal with at least as much favour as had 
her son, and the same evening Mazarin supped with 
their Majesties. 

A week later the Duchesse de Mercceur and Olympe 
Mancini, escorted by their brother Paul, re-entered 
Paris. A journal of the time announced their arrival 
as follows : — 

"The 3rd of this month of February arrived here, 
by the Porte Saint-Antoine, the nieces of his Excellency 
preceded by the Princesse de Carignan, 1 the Princesse 

1 Marie de Bourbon (1606-92), daughter of Charles de Bourbon, 
Comte de Soissons (1 566-161 2) and Anne de Montafie, and wife of 
Prince Thomas Francois de Carignan, son of Charles Emmanuel the 
Great, of Savoy. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 29 

Louise, her daughter, Marechal de Guebriand, the 
Marquis d'Ampus, and a number of ladies of condition. 
They alighted at the Hotel de Vendome, where the 
dowager-duchess, accompanied by several ladies, wel- 
comed them with the greatest marks of affection, which 
were principally bestowed on the Duchesse de Mercceur, 
her daughter-in-law. Then, having been conducted to 
the Louvre, they were favourably received by their 
Majesties, after which the Queen caused them to be 
conducted into the apartment which had been prepared 
for them in that residence. In the evening, they were 
splendidly entertained by the Princesse de Carignan, 
who provided for them every possible diversion. . . . 
Since, they have permitted them to receive after dinner 
the visits full of honour and affection which the ladies 
of the Court and town rendered them." 1 

The cordial welcome extended to the sisters by the 
Princesse de Carignan would appear to suggest that she 
already regarded with a favourable eye the possibility of 
an alliance between Olympe Mancini and her son, Prince 
Eugene de Savoie-Carignan, which actually took place 
five years later. But the Cardinal, who always made a 
point of never showing any eagerness for the establish- 
ment of his nieces, pretended not to notice it. 

Scarcely had Mazarin returned, when the troubles 
recommenced more violently than ever. Failing in 
an attempt to get the Cardinal proscribed anew, Conde 
began a regular war against the Court, and gained some 
unimportant successes over Marechal d'Hocquincourt, 
who commanded the royal army. The object of the 
prince was apparently to get possession of the person of 
the young King. But Turenne, recalled by an urgent 

1 Cited by Lucian Perey, " Le Roman du Grand Roi." 



3 o FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

message from Louis, quitted the army which was con- 
fronting the Spaniards and hastened to Bleneau, where, 
on 7 April, he saved the rest of the Royalists and Louis 
himself, who was at Gien, and, in the event of defeat, 
would in all probability have fallen into his rebellious 
kinsman's hands. Three weeks later, Turenne and 
d'Hocquincourt gained a fresh success over Cond6 at 
Etampes, where the latter lost over a thousand men. A 
futile attempt at negotiations on the part of the prince 
followed, after which he quitted his post at Saint-Cloud 
and crossed the Seine, with the intention of occupy- 
ing Charenton. Hard pressed, however, by the royal 
troops, he was compelled to throw himself into the 
Faubourg Saint-Antoine, where, on 2 July, a battle was 
fought, which would undoubtedly have ended in the 
total destruction of Conde's army, had not la Grande 
Mademoiselle persuaded the citizens to open their gates 
to the retreating Frondeurs and turned the cannon of 
the Bastille on the victorious Royalists. " Voilh un coup 
de canon qui a tut un mari ! " Mazarin, who had watched 
the fighting from a place of safety, is reported to have 
exclaimed, when the first gun was fired, meaning thereby 
that Mademoiselle had destroyed all chance of ever 
becoming the consort of Louis XIV. 

The combat was a sanguinary one, and the Cardinal 
had the grief to learn that, amongst the Royalist officers 
most severely wounded, was his nephew Paul Mancini, 
who, though barely fifteen years of age, had recently 
been appointed mestre de camp of the Regiment de la 
Marine, and had fought with the greatest gallantry at 
the head of his men. The young officer was conveyed 
to Saint-Denis, where the Court had established itself, 
and the surgeons pronounced his wound a very danger- 
ous one. However, since he had youth and an excel- 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 31 

lent constitution on his side, they held out some hope of 
his recovery, provided that he could be ensured absolute 
rest. Unhappily, the Court was obliged to leave Saint- 
Denis, where the King was not considered in safety, and 
Mazarin, fearing to leave the lad to the tender mercies 
of Conde's defeated soldiery or the populace of Paris, 
who might have vented upon him their hatred of his 
uncle, gave directions that he was to be removed in 
a litter. This journey proved fatal to the poor youth, 
who died the following day, at Pontoise, a few hours 
after receiving the brevet of colonel of the Chevau- 
legers of his guard from Louis XIV's own hands. 

Mazarin, who did not ordinarily evince much sensi- 
bility where members of his family were concerned, was 
in despair at the death of his nephew ; he had reckoned 
on the favour of the King, who was much attached to 
the boy, to ensure him a brilliant future, and had enter- 
tained for him a sincere affection. With the idea of 
perpetuating his memory, he composed a lengthy epitaph 
in which Mancini himself is supposed to recount to 
those who pass by his touching history. 

The Cardinal's grief was little respected by the Fronde, 
whose pamphleteers made it the occasion to pour upon 
him a deluge of abominable invectives and cynical 
pleasantries. To understand, indeed, the hatred with 
which the Minister was regarded, it is necessary to 
peruse some of these Mazarinades, unprofitable reading 
though they be ; for their authors did not hesitate to 
declare that Mazarin combined in his own person all the 
vices of both modern times and antiquity ; and the 
ignorant mob believed them. One scribe went so far 
as to publish a pamphlet entitled (s Le Pacte de Mazarin 
avec le demon," in which he asserted that the Cardinal 
" had given his soul and body to the devil, on condition 



32 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

of becoming the richest and most powerful man in 
Europe, beloved of fair ladies, and of dying in his bed." 
This contract was supposed to have been entered into 
at Rome in the year 1632. 

It is singular to reflect that the Minister who was the 
object of all this scurrilous abuse had, whatever his 
faults may have been, never wavered in his fidelity to 
the country of his adoption, while those who vilified 
him were the mouthpieces of men who intrigued and 
even fought with the enemies of France. 

The inveterate hatred with which the partisans of 
Conde, the Parliament, and the Parisians generally re- 
garded Mazarin had been rather accentuated than 
appeased by the Royalist successes in the field, and 
though the citizens opened negotiations with the King, 
they firmly declined to return to their allegiance until 
the Minister was removed. The Queen was naturally 
violently opposed to such a demand ; but Mazarin him- 
self advised compliance, well knowing that his exile 
would be but a brief one ; and Anne finally consented, 
at the same time intimating in unmistakable terms that 
she was acting under constraint. 

The Cardinal left Pontoise on 19 August 1652, 
having recommended as first minister Prince Thomas de 
Savoie, while his faithful henchmen Servien and Le 
Tellier remained at their posts. He proceeded to 
Bouillon and thence to Cologne, from which city he 
kept up an active correspondence with the Queen, and 
continued to direct all her actions. She, on her part, 
carried out his instructions with the utmost docility, 
taking upon her own shoulders all the odium which 
some of them aroused, and did not cease to urge the 
return of her beloved Minister in the most tender and 
impassioned terms. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 33 

" I know not when I ought to look for your return," 
she writes, " since new obstacles to hinder it are con- 
stantly arising. All that I can say is, that I am very 
weary, and bear this delay with great impatience, and if 
16 [Mazarin] knew all that 15 [the Queen] suffers in 
this way, I am sure that he would be touched. I suffer 
so much at this moment that I have not the strength to 
write for long, nor do I know too well what to say. I 
have received your letters almost every day, without 
which I know not what would happen. Continue to 
write as often, since you afford me some consolation in 
the state in which I am. ... At the worst, you have 
only to throw the blame for the delay on 1 5 [the Queen], 
who is a thousand times £ [yours] and until her last sigh. 
The child [the Due de Mercceur] will tell you everything. 
Adieu ; I can write no more, and he [Mazarin] knows 
why. . . ." 

At length, all difficulties having been overcome, the 
Cardinal was recalled. His return was preceded by a 
considerable service to the State. At his own expense 
he raised and equipped a body of troops in the neigh- 
bourhood of Liege, and joined Turenne, who was laying 
siege to Bar-le-Duc. In spite of the severity of the 
winter, the Cardinal displayed so much activity and en- 
thusiasm that those about him found it difficult to believe 
that he had ever exchanged the sword for the soutane. 
The place surrendered after a brief resistance, and, on 
9 February 1653, Mazarin re-entered Paris in a blaze 
of glory. The King, followed by the greatest nobles of 
the Court, went to meet the returning Minister as far as 
Bourget, insisted on his entering his coach, and brought 
him in triumph to the Louvre, where a magnificent suite 
of apartments had been prepared for him. 

And — singular transformation ! — the same people 



34 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

who, but six short months before, had execrated the very 
name of the Italian adventurer, now received him with 
shouts of welcome. "The time of storm was past," 
says Henault, "and one respected in him a fortune 
which so many trials had been powerless to overthrow." 




From an engraving after the drawing by Wallerant Vaillant 
LOUIS XIV 



CHAPTER III 

Mazarin summons a second detachment of his family to France — Marie 
Mancini's account of her childhood and of the journey to France — 
Marriage of the Prince de Conti to Anne-Marie Martinozzi — Their 
married life — Arrival of Laure Martinozzi, Marie, Hortense, and 
Philippe Mancini, and their mothers in Paris— Character of Madame 
Mancini — Her dislike of her daughter Marie — She persuades the 
Cardinal to send Marie to the Couvent de la Visitation — Hortense 
joins her sister — Remarkable progress of Marie in her studies — Let- 
ters of Marie and Hortense to the Cardinal — Marie leaves the convent 
and joins the Court at La Fere — A manage manque — Marie returns 
to her mother — Marriage of Laure Martinozzi to the Prince of 
Modena — Marianne and Alphonse Mancini brought to France — A 
practical joke — Harsh treatment of Marie by her mother — Marie's 
studies — Illness of Madame Mancini — Beginning of the friendship 
between Marie and Louis XIV — Death of Madame Mancini — And 
of the Duchesse de Mercceur. 



A FTER the Fronde, Mazarin, with all his enemies out- 
witted and incomparably the wealthiest subject in 
Europe, devoted himself to still further strengthening 
his authority by new and brilliant alliances for his family. 
On 1 8 April 1653, he wrote to his father, in Rome, 
to acquaint him with his intention to bring his niece, 
Anne-Marie Martinozzi, to France, and to request him 
to confer with the French Ambassador to the Vatican 
and " make all the preparations he judged necessary." 
At the same time, he demanded of his sister, Signora 
Mancini, her son Philippe, and her eldest remaining 
daughter Marie. The last named, in a rare little work 
entitled " La Verite dans son jour, ou les Veritables 

35 



36 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Memoires de M. Manchini, connetable Colonne," 1 has 
left us some interesting details of her childhood, which 
help us to understand her character and the original turn 
of her mind : 

"Rome witnessed my birth, of a family illustrious 
enough to make itself esteemed for its own renown, and 
which needed not the glory of Cardinal Mazarin to en- 
able it to take a sufficiently high place in the chief city 
in the world. At the age of seven, my mother, to whom 
I appeared less beautiful than my sister Hortense, to-day 
Duchesse de Mazarin, placed me in the Campo Marzio, 
convent of the Order of Saint-Benedict, with the idea 
of having me brought up in the religious life. At the 
end of two years, although my mother had much less 
inclination for me than for my sister, she did not fail to 
be touched by my feeble health ; and, attributing my in- 
disposition to the close confinement in which I was kept 
and to the impure air which I breathed in the convent — 
which, in fact, was very unhealthy — she took me away 
and made me return to her. 

"About two years after I had left the convent, my 
uncle, the Cardinal, whose fortune had already reached 
its height, desired, for the example of the . . . 2 to increase 
it still further by allowing others to participate therein ; 

1 This book, published in Spain, but which bears no date, must not 
be confused with the better known "Apologie ou les Veritables Memoires 
de Madame Marie Mancini, connetable de Colonna, ecrits par elle-meme. 
A Leide, pour l'auteur, chez Jean von Gelder, a la Tortue, 1678," or 
with " Les Memoires de M. L. P. M. M. (Madame la Princesse Marie 
Mancini) Colonne G. Connetable du royaume de Naples. A Cologne, 
chez Pierre Marteau, 1676." The latter work is apocryphal, while the 
" Apologie " would appear to have been written from the manuscript of 
" La Verite dans son jour," which Marie Mancini had confided to a 
person of the name of Bremont. Bremont, without altering the facts, 
which are identical in the two works, altogether perverted the style in 
his efforts to improve it. 

2 An illegible word. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 37 

and this obliged him to summon to him my mother and 
my aunt Martinozzi, with orders to each of them to 
bring her eldest daughter. This direction seemed to 
exclude my sister Hortense, as being the younger ; but 
her beauty had given her the elder's privilege in the 
inclination of my mother, who did not, however, fail to 
explain to me my uncle's wishes, and would no doubt 
have been pleased if I had declined to obey him, a 
matter concerning which I had no difficulty in coming 
to a decision, inasmuch as she bade me choose between 
going to France or remaining in Rome with my aunt 
and consecrating myself to God in a cloister. To which, 
I remember, that I replied that there were convents 
everywhere, and that when it pleased Heaven to inspire 
me with pious aspirations, it would be as easy to follow 
them in Paris as in Rome ; moreover, that I was not yet 
old enough to decide so important a matter. 

" This answer disabused my mother of the error 
under which she had hitherto lain and made her deter- 
mine to bring me; and, to spare herself the resentment 
which the fact of my being preferred to my sister had 
occasioned her, she brought us both. 

" We accordingly embarked in a Genoese galley, 
which that republic, which had a very particular regard 
for the Cardinal, had sent for us. I shall not pause 
here to describe this moving mansion, since it would be 
necessary to consume too much time in depicting all its 
beauties, its spruceness, its richness, and its magnifi- 
cence ; and it will be enough for me to say that we 
were treated as queens during our voyage, and that the 
tables of sovereigns were not served with more pomp 
and splendour than was ours four times a day. 

"We disembarked at length at Marseilles, in May 
1653, where my aunt, who was a little too scrupulous, 



38 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

for a long time declined to receive the corporation of 
the town, who begged to be permitted to pay their 
respects, being unable to make up her mind to the 
form of salutation in vogue in France. 1 This delicacy 
was at last overcome, though with great difficulty, and 
afforded material for laughter to many people, who were 
astonished, and with reason enough, that she made so 
much mystery over a formality sanctioned by custom 
and justified by so long a voyage. 

" From Marseilles we passed to Aix, where we were 
received by the governor of the province, who was at 
that time the Due de Mercceur, the first French noble 
who had up to then allied himself with the Cardinal, 
having espoused Laure Mancini, my eldest sister, whom 
he himself had demanded at Cologne, at the time when 
his Eminence was obliged to withdraw thither. We 
remained eight months in this town of Aix, where the 
duke my brother-in-law entertained us in the most 
magnificent manner conceivable, and where my sister, 
his wife, came to join us two months later, and con- 
tributed in every possible way to make the time pass 
agreeably." 

While the second detachment of the Cardinal's family 
was at Aix, where Madame de Mercceur busied herself 
with instructing her young sisters and cousin in the 
etiquette of the French Court, devoting particular atten- 
tion to Marie, whose early education, partly owing to 
her ill-health and partly owing to the indifference with 
which her mother regarded her, had been much 
neglected, Mazarin was employed in concluding arrange- 
ments for the union of his family with Royalty itself, 

1 This consisted in embracing the women and in allowing the men to 
kiss the lady's hand. 




From an engraving by Frosne 

ARMAND DE BOURBON, PRINCE DE CONTI 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 39 

by an alliance between Anne-Marie Martinozzi and the 
Prince de Conti, younger brother of Conde. 

Armand de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, who was at 
this time about thirty-four years of age, had been 
originally destined for the Church, and though he had 
resisted the imposition of hands ecclesiastical, had 
received as his appanage many rich abbeys, such as 
Saint-Denis, Cluny, and Lerens. In person, he was 
short and slightly deformed, defects which were atoned 
for by a strikingly handsome face and charming man- 
ners. Always under the influence of his celebrated 
sister, Madame de Longueville, he joined the Fronde, 
and when Mazarin returned from his second exile, was 
engaged in defending Bordeaux against the royal troops, in 
company with the Due and Duchesse de Longueville and 
the Princesse de Conde and her son the Due d'Enghien. 
When at length the city surrendered, he found himself 
in a humiliating position. In disgrace at Court, his 
large fortune almost entirely gone, and crippled with 
debt, he was one day bewailing his lot and comparing 
it with that of the Due de Candale, who had com- 
manded the Royalists besieging Bordeaux, when his 
secretary, the poet Sarrazin, advised him "to do as 
M. de Candale was about to do." (A marriage between 
Candale and one of the Cardinal's nieces was then 
being talked of). Conti caught at his secretary's 
suggestion as a drowning man catches at a straw, and, 
though his almoner, Daniel de Cosnac, afterwards Arch- 
bishop of Aix, opposed the project, the counsels of 
Sarrazin prevailed, and he was despatched to Paris to 
conduct the negotiation. 

The secretary broached the subject to the Minister, 1 

1 According to one account, it was the Cardinal who, some little time 
before this, had broached the matter to Sarrazin, and had offered him a 
considerable bribe to put the idea into his master's head. 



4 o FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

who, although overjoyed at the prospect of a union 
between a member of his family and a Prince of the 
Blood, was faithful to his character, and succeeded in 
beating his prospective nephew down several hundred 
thousand livres in the matter of the dot. 

From the " Memoires " of Cosnac, which contain 
many curious details about this affair, it would appear 
that Conti had given Sarrazin carte blanche in regard to 
the choice of his princess, observing that it was a matter 
of perfect indifference to him which of the young ladies 
was allotted him, since it was the Cardinal and not a 
wife that he desired to espouse. Sarrazin, good servant 
that he was, proved himself worthy of so much con- 
fidence, and demanded for his master the most beautiful 
and the most virtuous of the nieces — Anne-Marie 
Martinozzi, to wit. Poor Anne-Marie would vastly 
have preferred accepting the homage of the fascinating 
Candale, to whom she had practically been promised. 
But her uncle's wishes were law ; and, besides, the duke 
regarded the matter with the same eye as the prince — 
it was the Cardinal whom he proposed to espouse ; and, 
by no means unwilling to prolong his career of gallantry, 
withdrew his pretensions without hesitation. 

It is sad to relate that, while these negotiations were 
in progress, the Prince de Conti was preparing himself 
for the duties of matrimony by frequenting public dais 
masques and other questionable entertainments, and lead- 
ing generally so dissipated a life that his health remained 
seriously affected for some time afterwards. 

The betrothal took place on 21 February 1654, at 
the Louvre, and, on the following day, the marriage was 
celebrated, by the Archbishop of Bourges, in the Queen's 
Chapel. The bride wore " a dress of brocade, enriched 
with pearls of very great price, and was conducted to 







Qui runts rnJftre isq/tre 
09 couf'effi'ijajnrs que, tpu 
$K*f> nous jxauroit rnanj 
S)e j'i beau que cette j- 



dixffe 



From an engraving after the painting by Eeaubrun 

ANNE MARIE MARTINOZZI, PRINCESSE DE CONTI 



FIVEgFAIR SISTERS 41 

the chapel by their Majesties, Monsieur, the Prince de 
Conti, Cardinal Mazarin, and several other leaders of 
the Court." 

The Prince de Conti had certainly every reason to 
consider himself a fortunate man, for not only did his 
marriage restore to him all the offices and dignities he 
had lost by his conduct during the Fronde, plus a hand- 
some dowry, the government of Guienne, and a magnifi- 
cent hotel on the Quai Malaquais, which the Cardinal, 
in a fit of generosity, subsequently erected for him at 
his own expense, but it brought him an extremely 
beautiful wife, who joined to her loveliness " much 
sweetness of temper, much intelligence, and good 
sense." 1 

The union proved a happy one, in spite of occasional 
fits of jealousy on the prince's part, for which his wife, 
who, though at the time of their marriage " merely an 
honest pagan," soon became a devote of the most 
rigorous type, seems to have given him not the 
shadow of a cause, 2 and in spite, too, of his own 
occasional lapses from the path of virtue, during one of 
which he attempted ineffectually to pose as the lover of 

1 Madame de Motteville, " Memoires." If we are to believe con- 
temporary gossip, Conti would not appear at first to have fully appreci- 
ated his good fortune. He was ashamed of his marriage, and vented his 
ill-humour on Sarrazin, whom he smote on the head with a pair of 
tongs, inflicting injuries whereof the unfortunate poet died. This tragic 
incident gave rise to the following quatrain : — 

Deux charmants, deux fameux poetes, 
Disciples de Marat, Du Cerceau, Sarrazin, 
Ont eternise les pincettes. 
Le premier par ses verses et l'autre par sa fin. 

2 Once, not long after the marriage, Louis XIV, then seventeen, was 
so imprudent as to attempt to make love to the princess, who received his 
advances so very ungraciously, that, the following day, the Cardinal com- 
pelled her to apologize to his Majesty. Conti, who was then in Spain, 
informed of what had occurred, sent orders for his wife to join him 
immediately. Few husbands, in those days, showed a like discretion. 



42 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Madame de Sevign6. These lapses, as was the case with 
the celebrated Due de Joyeuse, were generally followed 
by violent fits of penitence and devotion, and at length, 
under the twofold influence of his wife and his sister 
Madame de Longueville, religion triumphed, and he 
became sincerely devout. " The beauty of his peni- 
tence," says Madame de Motteville, " surpassed the 
ugliness of his faults " ; but it would have perhaps 
been as well for his reputation with posterity if he 
had refrained from publishing his indictment of the 
theatre, wherein this erstwhile patron of Moliere gravely 
informs us that a troupe of actors is " a troupe of 
devils," and to amuse oneself at the theatre is to 
" delight the demon." 

The Princesse de Conti favoured Jansenist doctrines, 
and, after her husband's death, which occurred in 1666, 
became the protector and patroness of Port Royal. She 
was also extremely beneficent ; at least two-thirds of the 
wealth with which her uncle had endowed her were 
dispensed in charity, and an inscription on her tomb in 
Saint-Andre-des-Arts informs us that, during the famine 
of 1662, she sold all her jewellery to feed the starving 
poor of Berry, Champagne, and Picardy. She died six 
years after her husband, leaving two sons, one of whom 
married Mile, de Blois, daughter of Louis XIV and 
Louise de la Valliere, and died at the age of twenty- 
four ; while the other survived to be the highest 
ornament of his house. 

Some few weeks before the Conti-Martinozzi mar- 
riage, the second detachment of the Cardinal's family 
had left Aix for Paris. Mazarin did not deem it advis- 
able that his young relatives should proceed directly to 
the capital, but instructed them to break their journey 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 43 

at the Chateau de Villeroi, near Corbeil, where their 
uncle visited them, to assure himself that they had 
benefited sufficiently by the lessons of the Duchesse de 
Mercoeur to pass muster at Court. The result of his 
examination being satisfactory, he gave orders for them 
to proceed to Paris, where they arrived at the beginning 
of February, and were immediately presented to their 
Majesties, " who received them with marks of extra- 
ordinary kindness." The courtiers, of course, followed 
suit, and overwhelmed the little strangers with attentions ; 
while even the rhymesters of the Fronde, who had so 
lately been holding Mazarin and all his belongings up to 
ridicule and odium, now vied with one another in chant- 
ing their praises : 

Les Mancini, les Martinosses, 
Illustres matieres de noces ! 

The new arrivals assisted at the marriage of their 
cousin to the Prince de Conti and the brilliant fetes 
which followed it, where the beauty of the little Hortense 
Mancini seems to have been particularly remarked upon. 
Three months later (7 June), the King, who had just 
attained the age of fifteen, was crowned at Rheims, and 
Philippe Mancini had the honour of being selected as 
one of the bearers of the Holy Ampulla. It may 
here be remarked that Mazarin, who had been deeply 
attached to Paul Mancini, always entertained a strong 
aversion to Philippe, who had no merit, in his eyes, 
save that of being of his own blood, and whom he 
invariably treated with the greatest harshness and 
severity. 

Madame Mancini, or de Mancini, as she was now 
called — for, by the Cardinal's desire, his relatives, since 
their arrival in Paris, had prefixed the French territorial 
prefix to their names — was allotted to a suite of apartments 



44 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

in the Louvre, where Marie and Hortense lived with 
her. She appears to have been a singularly unpleasant 
kind of woman, ill-tempered, bigoted, and superstitious. 
(She believed with equal fervour in the power of saints 
and of astrologers.) What affection she had to bestow 
was concentrated on three of her daughters — Madame 
de Mercceur, Olympe, and the little Hortense. Marie 
she could not endure, and, as we have seen, had only 
brought her to France with extreme reluctance. She 
now advised her brother to send the girl to a convent, 
hoping that, once there, she would remain there. The 
Cardinal was far from sharing his sister's feelings with 
regard to his niece ; but, inasmuch as Marie, at this 
time a thin, sallow-complexioned, and ungainly child, 
did not strike him as likely to create a favourable 
impression at Court, he decided to do as Madame 
Mancini suggested, and the girl was accordingly sent 
to the Couvent de la Visitation, in the Faubourg Saint- 
Jacques, " to see," as his Eminence expressed it, " if she 
would not put on a little flesh." 

Here, two months later, she was joined by her little 
sister Hortense, " who was too much of a child to 
remain at Court, to which her beauty had introduced 
her, and where every one was so pleased to see her, even 
up to Monsieur* who, child though he was, could not 
live without her. His Eminence added that she was a 
little too obstinate, to which, he said, the liberty she had 
been allowed to enjoy in the great world had too much 
contributed." 2 

The abbess of the Couvent de la Visitation was Mere 
Elisabeth de Lamoignon, sister of the First President of 

1 The Due d'Anjou, afterwards Due d'Orleans, the King's brother. 

2 " La Verite dans son jour, ou les Veritables Memoires de M. 
Mancini, connetable Colonne." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 45 

the Parliament of Paris, "who was charged to instruct us 
and to teach us the language and all that she considered 
necessary for girls of our age and rank." 1 Madame de 
Lamoignon quickly perceived that in Marie she had no 
ordinary pupil. The young girl was singularly gifted, 
and learned with extraordinary rapidity. The most 
difficult subjects did not seem to present any difficulties 
to her, and so marvellous was her memory that she was 
able to retain whole pages from tragedies and poems. 
Moreover, she was an indefatigable student, the reason 
being that, young though she was, she was well aware 
that, if she wished to occupy a place at Court, the object 
of all her desires, her only chance was to atone by the 
graces of the mind for her lack of physical attractions. 

The abbess did not fail to render an account of the 
astonishing progress made by her pupil to the Cardinal, 
who expressed himself much gratified ; but he had 
conceived a great affection for Hortense, who remained 
the favourite among his nieces to the end of his life, 
and it was she who addressed to her uncle requests 
which Marie would never have dared to make. Thus, 
two months after entering the convent, we find her 
writing to the Cardinal the following letter : — 

Hortense de Martini to Cardinal Mazarin. 

" 1 July 1654, Couvent de la Visitation, 

" Faubourg Saint- Jacques. 

" Monseigneur, — I have been too long in this place 
without giving myself the honour of writing to your 
Eminence. I had intended to wait until I was more 
proficient in writing, but I am impatient to know if the 
little Hortense is still honoured by your remembrance. 
She is striving hard to learn how to serve God and 

1 Ibid. 



46 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

to make herself very wise, in order to merit this favour. 
If your Excellency would be willing to favour me with 
one of his visits, as he promised me, that would be the 
summit of my happiness. If I cannot have this honour, 
at least I beg your Eminence very humbly to remember 
to give instructions to M. Colbert touching that which 
he promised me every month for my diversion and for 
giving alms to the poor ; and also your Eminence will 
not forget that the time since I have been at home, 
which is nearly a month, ought to be reckoned, and my 
sister Marie nearly three. I should be grieved, loving 
her as I do, were she to have no share in your 
liberalities. She begs to be honoured by your re- 
membrance, since, like myself, she has no other desire 
than to render ourselves worthy of the quality of 

" Your very humble and obedient niece and servant, 
who loves you with all her heart, 

" HORTENSE DE MaNCINI." 

The Cardinal, through the Bishop of Coutances, lost 
no time in making a satisfactory response to this appeal, 
and both sisters write to thank him. Here are their 
letters, that of Marie being a singularly graceful and 
charming one for a girl only thirteen years of age : — 

Marie de Mancini to Cardinal Mazarin. 

" This 9 July, Couvent de la Visitation, 
" Faubourg Saint- Jacques. 

" Monseigneur, — I lack words to express the senti- 
ments of respect and gratitude that I have for the kind- 
ness and care your Eminence has for us. Monseigneur 
de Coutances has just given us fresh proofs of it, since 
he has assured us that we have always a share in the 
honour of your remembrance. He has brought us 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 47 

thirty pistoles [three hundred francs] and some fans, on 
behalf of your Eminence ; and what has transported us 
with admiration, is to find that, in the midst of your 
important occupations, you condescend so far as to think 
of matters so nearly concerning our persons. It is for 
me a powerful incentive to study to perfect myself, and 
to be one day so happy as to give you cause not to 
disown me. 

" 1 am, etc." 

Hortense de Mancini to Cardinal Mazarin. 

" Saint e-Marie de la Visitation. 

" Monseigneur, — I am transported to find that you 
have done your little Hortense the honour to think of 
her. Monseigneur de Coutances will be able to express 
to you my joy, and especially when he gave me the pre- 
sents onyour behalf. I believed that it was true what 
he told me, that you always love me a little. It is that 
which makes me pray to God with all my heart for your 
Eminence, that you may have the kindness to continue 
that favour. That God may preserve you in health, the 
while I shall strive to do everything possible not to be 
unworthy of the quality of your .... etc. . . ." l 

Among her accomplishments, Marie now numbered 
drawing, and, desirous of doing everything possible to 
establish herself in the good graces of her all-powerful 
uncle, she conceived the idea of sending him for his 
f£te-day a portrait of Hortense, which she had recently 
finished. 

1 Published by Lucien Perey, " Le Roman du Grand Roi." 



48 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Marie Mancini to Cardinal Mazarin. 

" 18 August 1655. 

" Monseigneur, — Since in ten days' time it will be the 
festival of the saint whose name your Eminence bears, 
I cannot allow it to pass without offering to your 
Eminence this little portrait of my fashioning. I 
know that you love very much her whom it represents, 
and I shall esteem myself happy if, when you look at it, 
you do me the honour to remember me, and to believe 
that we shall not fail to offer earnestly, on that day, our 
prayers to our Lord for your preservation, having 
nothing so much at heart as to prove to you my desire 
to live and die in the respect and obedience which I owe 
to you, etc." 1 

Marie had been an inmate of the Couvent de la 
Visitation some eighteen months, when, one day in 
October 1655, she received a letter from the Cardinal 
informing her that she was to leave it and join the 
Court, which was then at La Fere, in Picardy. She 
travelled thither in charge of Madame de Venel, a lady 
entirely devoted to Mazarin's interests, who became a 
little later gouvernante to his three younger nieces, heartily 
glad, we may suppose, to exchange the dull monotony 
of the convent for the gaiety and bustle of Court life, 
and was received very graciously by her uncle. 

In his letter, Mazarin had said nothing about the 
motive which had prompted him to send for his niece, 
which was a matrimonial one. He had, as a matter of 
fact, arranged, or believed that he had arranged, a mar- 
riage between Marie and Armand de la Porte, only son 
of the Marechal de la Meilleraye. 

1 Published by Lucien Perey, " Le Roman du Grand Roi." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 49 

In the eyes of the old aristocracy of France, the La 
Portes were little better than parvenus. The marshal 
himself, though a relative by marriage of Richelieu, 
was the grandson of an advocate, while, if Saint-Simon 
is to be believed, the founder of the family was only a 
humble doorkeeper, whence came the name of La Porte. 
Saint-Simon, however, as is well known, had a remarkably 
fertile imagination, particularly where persons whom he 
disliked were concerned. On the other hand, the 
marshal, by methods into which it were perhaps in- 
discreet to inquire too closely, had succeeded in amass- 
ing an enormous fortune, and had obtained permission 
to hand over to his son his lucrative post of Grand 
Master of the Artillery, as well as his governments. 
Altogether, thought his Eminence, poor, plain Marie 
might consider herself an exceedingly fortunate girl. 

But the Cardinal and the marshal, in making their 
calculations, had forgotten one unimportant detail, 
namely, to assure themselves of the consent of the 
prospective bridegroom. The latter had seen Marie and 
Hortense at the time of their first appearance at Court, 
and, while he had scarcely noticed the former, had fallen 
desperately in love with the latter, notwithstanding the 
fact that she was then barely ten years old. He now 
flatly declared that he would wed Hortense or no one ; 
that from the first moment he had seen her, he had loved 
her with such devotion that, if he were not permitted to 
marry her, he would retire to pass the rest of his life in 
a convent. And one day, the object of his adoration 
tells us, he confided to the Duchesse d'Aiguillon that so 
overmastering was the passion which consumed him that 
" provided he could marry Hortense, he cared not if he 
died three months later." These words, the writer 
adds, were duly reported to the Cardinal, who, indignant 



S o FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

at the Grand Master's refusal of his elder niece's hand, 
exclaimed contemptuously, " I would rather give Hor- 
tense to a lackey than allow him to marry her." 1 How- 
ever, as we shall see, he subsequently came to view the 
matter in a different light. 

In the winter, the Court returned to Paris. Marie 
was not a little afraid that after this manage manque she 
would be sent back to the convent. But her uncle, not 
a little impressed by the girl's intelligence, had resolved 
to definitely emancipate her and she, therefore, returned 
to her mother at the Louvre. Shortly afterwards, 
Hortense also quitted the Visitation, and was taken 
charge of by her eldest sister, Madame de Mercceur, 
who allowed her a good deal of liberty, of which the 
young lady did not fail to take the fullest advantage. 
Olympe, as the eldest unmarried sister, had already a 
separate suite of apartments of her own. 

Mazarin could afford to regard the failure of his first 
attempt to establish Marie Mancini in life with com- 
parative equanimity, since, in the previous summer, 
he had succeeded in arranging a brilliant alliance for 
another of his nieces, Laure Martinozzi, younger sister 
of the Princesse de Conti, who was then sixteen, a little 
the junior of her cousin Olympe Mancini. The memoirs 
of the time have left us no details in regard to the 
appearance of Laure Martinozzi, who was only a 
bird of passage, though, as an anonymous rhymester, 
whom Amedee Renee cites in his "Nieces de Mazarin," 
qualifies her as a " Roman beauty," it is probable 
that she did not want for attractions. However, 
whether she was beautiful or not, she resembled her 
elder sister in other respects, inasmuch as she was 

1 " Memoires de la Duchesse de Mazarin." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 51 

pious, intelligent, and amiable ; and when Alfonso d'Este, 
only son and heir of the reigning Duke of Modena, 
demanded her hand in marriage, there can be no doubt 
that he — or rather his agents, since he married her by 
proxy without ever having seen her — exercised a wise 
discretion in preferring her to Olympe, who was deeply 
mortified at being passed over. Personal considerations, 
however, probably counted for very little in this alliance. 
Modena needed the support of France against Spain, 
which was then pressing with all her weight upon the 
petty sovereigns of Italy, and Duke Francesco I, as 
capable a statesman as he was a soldier, perceived that an 
alliance with the family of the virtual ruler of France 
would assure him what he desired. 

The marriage was celebrated at Compiegne, in June 
1655, Prince Eugene de Savoie, afterwards the husband 
of Olympe Mancini and the father of the celebrated 
commander, acting as proxy for the Prince of Modena 
in the gorgeous ceremonial, which was precisely the same 
in all respects as if the bride had been a daughter of 
France. 

A few days later, the young princess set out for Italy, 
accompanied by her mother Madame Martinozzi, the 
Due and Duchesse de Noailles, and a numerous suite. 
Madame Martinozzi remained for some time at Modena 
with her daughter, and then returned to her house in 
Rome, where she passed the rest of her life. 

From the marriage of Laure Martinozzi and Alfonso 
d'Este, two children were born : a son, who succeeded 
his father, in 1662, as Duke Francesco II, and a daughter, 
Marie Beatrice, who married James, Duke of York, 
after the death of his first wife, Anne Hyde, and 
became Queen of England and mother of the old 
Pretender, so that, but for the Revolution, the blood of 



52 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Mazarin might have continued to flow in our sovereigns' 
veins. 

During the minority of her son, the Duchess of 
Modena acted as regent, and governed her little State 
with both wisdom and firmness (" virile donna" one of 
her biographers calls her), in politics remaining faithful 
to France and Louis XIV. Afterwards she joined her 
mother in Rome, where she continued to reside until 
her death. 

The Due and Duchesse de Noailles had been entrusted 
by Mazarin with another mission, besides that of escort- 
ing the Princess of Modena to her future home. They 
were charged to bring from Rome the little Marianne 
Mancini, the youngest of the five sisters, who had re- 
mained behind in that city, under the care of one of her 
aunts, when her mother set out for France, and, with 
her, her little brother Alphonse. On their homeward 
journey, they stopped at Modena, where, as cousins of 
the new princess, they were received with great cere- 
mony, and an address presented to them by the muni- 
cipal authorities, to which Marianne replied with much 
aplomb in a jargon of her own, a mixture of Italian and 
French. Although only six years old, the little girl was 
extraordinarily precocious, and on her arrival in France, 
quickly became a great favourite with the Cardinal and 
the Queen and the pet of the Court, which her gaiety 
and amusing repartees greatly diverted. His Eminence, 
when in a good humour, was in the habit of playing on 
the child singular tricks. Here is one which her sister 
Hortense relates in her " Memoires," and which, though 
somewhat gai, is too characteristic of the morals of the 
time to be omitted : 

" Another thing which afforded us much diversion at 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 53 

this time was a jest which the Cardinal played upon the 
future Duchesse de Bouillon, the little Marianne, who 
was then six years old ; she was very gay, very lively, 
and used to make repartees far in advance of her age. 
The Queen used to divert herself greatly with them, as 
did also the Cardinal, who permitted himself the greatest 
liberties with her, and delighted to tease her more than 
any one. The Court was then at La Fere. One day, in 
the Queen's apartments, Mazarin amused himself by 
rallying Marianne on some gallantry that he pretended 
that she had, and ended by reproaching her with being 
with child. The resentment which she showed diverted 
every one so much that it was agreed to continue to 
rally her about it. . . . This went on so long as was 
thought necessary to make her believe the thing prob- 
able ; yet she refused to believe anything, and always 
defended herself with a great deal of heat, until, one 
fine morning, she found between her sheets a little child. 
You cannot imagine the astonishment and grief she was 
in at this sight. . . . The Queen came to console her, 
and wanted to be godmother, and all the Court came to 
congratulate the accouchee. They pressed her hard to tell 
them the name of the father, and she replied, with an 
air of mystery : * It can be no one but the King or the 
Comte de Guiche, because they are the only men who 
have ever kissed me.'" 1 

Such were the pleasantries of the time, and the manner 
in which the characters of young girls were formed ! 

Little Marianne, like Marie, lived with her mother, 
but, whereas Madame Mancini treated the child with 
the utmost indulgence, for the elder sister she had 
nothing but harshness and severity. " My mother," 
writes Marie, " had become so bad-tempered that she 

1 " Memoires de la Duchesse de Mazarin." 



54 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

was unbearable ; and, as I was the least loved and the 
only one exposed to her ill-humour — my sister Olympe 
being in a separate apartment, and my sister Hortense 
being with Madame de Mercoeur, under the care of 
Madame de Venel, who brought her up with much 
kindness and tenderness — I confess that I passed a very 
unpleasant time, and that nothing equalled my grief. 
To increase my misery, I had, for my only retreat, the 
worst of lodgings, and for my only companion an old 
femme de chambre called Rose, who had brought us up, 
and considered myself, besides, as being on the eve of 
entering a convent." 1 

The habitual harshness of her mother, indeed, made 
so great an impression upon the sensitive girl, that long 
after Madame Mancini's death had freed her from her 
thraldom, and she had become one of the divinities of 
the Court, she somehow found it difficult to realise that 
she was not still under her iron rule. 

" Education," she writes, " is the richest gift that 
fathers can bestow on their children after that of giving 
them birth ; but it is of great importance that it should 
be accompanied by kindness : too great severity serving 
only to despoil them of affection ; love and fear being 
almost always incompatible. This was my own ex- 
perience ; for even after my mother had been dead two 
years, my imagination, obsessed by the fear which had 
remained to me, represented her still living in my 
thoughts, and, even when waking, it seemed to me that 
I saw her, and that thought alone occasioned me in- 
credible pain." 1 

Poor Marie's troubles had, however, one beneficial 
result. The pleasures of the Court, in which her sisters 
freely indulged, being interdicted to her by her mother, 
1 " La Verite sur son jour." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS s$ 

and being left to her own resources almost the entire 
day, she sought to while away the long, lonely hours by 
reading, and, thanks to the splendid library wherewith 
the Cardinal was gradually replacing the collection 
dispersed in 1652, she had no lack of books. She read 
with avidity all the most celebrated French and Italian 
authors, and, with her wonderful memory, what she read 
was seldom forgotten. Poetry, and in particular Ariosto, 
was her favourite study, but she did not neglect more 
serious subjects, such as history, politics, and philosophy. 
And thus it came about that this little Cinderella, 
neglected and misunderstood, was, at an age when most 
young girls of to-day are still in the schoolroom, one of 
the most cultured women of her time, who, when at 
last she took her place in the great world, did not fear 
to converse with men like Lionne and Servien, La 
Rochefoucauld, and Saint-Evremond. 

In the latter part of the year 1656, Madame Mancini 
fell ill. Her malady, the nature of which we are not 
told, if not exactly induced, was certainly aggravated by 
superstition. She was, as we have mentioned, a devout 
believer in astrology, of which science her late husband, 
Lorenzo Mancini, would appear to have been a singu- 
larly successful exponent. His predictions, according 
to his widow, proved almost invariably correct. He 
had predicted the death of their son Paul, killed in the 
combat of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, and also his 
own death, on the very day on which it had occurred ; 
and, among those which remained to be fulfilled, he had 
predicted that she herself would die in her forty-second 
year, which she had but partly completed. 

During her illness, which was not at first considered 
serious, the King did her the honour to visit her every 
evening, and it is to these visits that may be traced the 



56 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

beginning of the friendship between his Majesty and 
Marie Mancini which was to cause so much perturba- 
tion in high places three years later. 

Madame Mancini, Marie tells us, had strictly for- 
bidden her daughter to enter her room when any 
visitors happened to be present. But, in order to reach 
the elder lady's apartment, the King had to pass through 
a room adjoining that of Marie, who very frequently 
contrived to enter it unobserved about the time at 
which her sovereign might be expected to arrive. 
Louis, on his part, never failed to stop to talk to the 
girl, whose lonely life he could not help pitying ; " and 
these few minutes of conversation sufficed to make my 
sad and mournful days pass more quickly, and I 
returned to my solitude less afflicted than before." 1 

Towards the end of the year so dreaded by Madame 
Mancini, her illness took a turn for the better, and she 
began to entertain hopes of her ultimate recovery. 
However, about the middle of December, she had a re- 
lapse, and on the nineteenth of the same month she died, 
the victim, apparently, partly of her own superstitious 
fears and partly of the ignorance of the surgeons who 
had attended her, and, as a last resource, had adminis- 
tered to the sick woman a powerful emetic. 

The approach of death did not effect any change in 
her feelings towards the daughter whom she had always 
treated with so much harshness and injustice, and 
almost her last act was to implore the Cardinal to send 
Marie to a convent, " because she appeared to her of a 
bad disposition, and because her husband, a famous 
astrologer, had predicted that she would be the cause of 
much evil." 2 

Madame Mancini was buried in royal state, and a 

1 " La Verite sur son jour." 2 Madame de Motteville, "Memoires." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 57 

solemn service, celebrated in the name of the general 
assembly of the clergy of France, was held at the 
Church of the Augustins for the repose of her soul, at 
which the Bishop of Montauban preached and availed 
himself of the opportunity to deliver a fulsome eulogy 
of Mazarin and his family. Her death, however, 
caused no interruption in the gaieties of the Court, and 
the same ladies who in the morning had assisted at the 
funeral service, her niece the Princesse de Conti among 
them, figured in the evening at the performance of the 
ballet of "T Amour malade," in the great hall of the 
Louvre, at which the young King, who represented the 
languishing god, " danced," says the Gazette de France^ 
" with so much grace and majesty that one may say that 
never had one seen so much sweetness and charm as 
in the person of this great prince." 

The Duchesse de Mercceur was on the eve of giving 
birth to her third child when Madame Mancini died. 
Although deeply affected by her mother's death, nothing 
occurred during her confinement to occasion her friends 
any uneasiness ; but, a few days later, "half her body be- 
came suddenly paralysed and she lost the power of speech." 
The Cardinal was sent for in hot haste and hurried to 
his niece's bedside, but, being reassured by the doctors 
in attendance, returned to the Louvre, where the King 
was again dancing in the ballet of " 1 'Amour malade." As 
he was leaving, word was brought him that Madame de 
Mercceur was much worse. Throwing himself into the 
first coach he could find, he drove at full speed to the 
Hotel de Vendome ; but, on reaching the sick-room, he 
learned that the duchess was dying, and, being unable to 
speak, she could only smile at him. " As she did not 
suffer," says Madame de Motteville, "and was still con- 



58 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

scious, death caused in her none of those terrible changes 
which it makes in others. A beautiful vermilion, which 
the fever gave her, had enhanced her natural beauty. 
I heard those who saw her in this state declare that she 
appeared to them the most beautiful woman possible to 
imagine, and her beauty increased their regret. The 
Cardinal was so affected that he could not refrain from 
giving expression to his grief, and the sobs he uttered 
appeared to proceed from a lively emotion." l 

The valuable, but little-known, "Memoires" of Daniel 
de Cosnac, who was present at Madame de Mercceur's 
death, contain some interesting details about the last hours 
of this good and amiable woman, who, firm in her faith and 
conscious of a blameless life, had a smile and a flash of 
gaiety, even in the very presence of the King of Terrors. 

" Ten days passed without her experiencing any in- 
convenience. I spent part of these ten days in her 
chamber, and found her more cheerful than she had been 
since her mother's death. I rallied her on her delicate 
state and because she kept her bed while she looked 
and felt so well, when she told me that she could not 
rid her mind of a thought which she had had during 
her confinement : it was that she would never leave her 
bed again. I laughed at this apprehension, and Madame 
de Venel, her dame d'bonneur, being in her room, she 
began to speak of her death again, laughing the while. 
Among other things, she said that when she died, she 
would not be able to refrain from laughing at the grimace 
Madame de Venel would make. I found her so well 
and in such good spirits that I said to her, * Madame, 
to-morrow you must dress, and we will dine by your 
fireside. . . ." At noon on the morrow, I came to the 
Hotel de Vendome. As I was mounting the steps, I 

1 Madame de Motteville, " Memoires." 





V.'l~ 



From a contemporary print 

LAURE MANCINI, DUCHESSE DE MERCCEUR 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 59 

was told that Madame was very ill. All that she had 
said the previous day returned to my mind. Having 
inquired of her how she did, she answered with difficulty, 
and, with her right arm, she proceeded to raise her left, 
and, showing it to me, told me that she could feel neither 
the hand nor the arm. The doctors maintained that her life 
was in no danger. . . . But she was overtaken by such 
drowsiness that they began to fear that her brain was 
affected. They ordered her to be cupped, which was 
done in so cruel a manner that the poor princess cried 
out in a way that pierced one's heart. She looked at 
me, as if to implore me to stop them tormenting her 
thus. This lasted all day. In the evening, the doctors 
began to change their tone. The Cardinal came himself 
to administer the Sacraments. She appeared so beauti- 
ful in this sad state that one could not realise that she 
must so soon die. At the foot of the bed she per- 
ceived Madame de Venel, who was weeping. The 
princess noticed her grimaces ; she turned her eyes in 
my direction, and when they encountered mine, she 
glanced towards Madame de Venel and began to smile, 
recollecting without doubt what she had said to me the 
previous day." 

The Due de Mercceur, who had been devotedly 
attached to his wife, was prostrated with grief. He 
retired into a convent of the Capuchins, where he 
remained for some time. Although still young, he did 
not think of remarrying, but became a priest, and died 
a cardinal and legate of the Holy See in France. 

By his marriage with Laure Mancini, the duke had 
three sons, of whom the eldest was the famous soldier, 
Louis Joseph, Due de Vendome, and the second, 
Philippe, Grand Prior of the Order of Malta, celebrated 
for his wit and debauchery. 



CHAPTER IV 

Marriage of Olympe Mancini to Prince Eugene de Savoie, Comte de 
Soissons — Friendship between Olympe and Louis XIV — His 
Majesty's visit to the Hotel de Soissons — Early galanteries of 
Louis XIV — Olympe and la Grande Mademoiselle — Marie Mancini 
takes her place at Court — Her appearance — Growing attachment 
between her and the King — Beneficial results of her influence over 
Louis — Fatal accident to Alphonse Mancini — Mazarin's grief at his 
nephew's death — His dislike of his surviving nephew, Philippe 
Mancini — The Comtesse de Soissons and Louis XIV — Incident at 
the Marechale de l'Hopital's ball — The Court follows the army — 
Louis XIV's visits to Turenne's headquarters at Mardyck — Surrender 
of Dunkerque — Dangerous illness of the King — Alarm in Parish- 
Colbert's letter to Mazarin — The King recovers — Passionate grief 
of Marie Mancini — Indifference of the Comtesse de Soissons — The 
Court at Fontainebleau — Louis XIV's attentions to Marie. 



TWrADAME DE MERCCEUR died on 9 February 
A 1657, and, ten days later, the second of the Mancini 
sisters, Olympe, was married to Prince Eugene de Savoie, 
Comte de Soissons, son of Prince Thomas de Carignan- 
Savoie. The date of the marriage had been fixed some 
time before the death of Madame de Mercosur, and the 
Cardinal, who always feared the unexpected, did not 
wish it to be postponed. It was a brilliant match for 
Olympe. Of the House of Savoy by his father, grand- 
son of Charles V by his grandmother, and of the blood 
royal of France by his mother, Marie de Bourbon, 
daughter of Charles de Bourbon, Comte de Soissons, it 
would have been difficult to find a husband of greater 
consideration or of higher birth. Moreover, Mazarin 

60 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 61 

had caused the title of Comte de Soissons to be revived 
in favour of his new nephew, 1 and Olympe thus became 
the wife of a Prince of the Blood, and was called, to 
distinguish her, Madame la Comtesse. 

The marriage contract was signed on 19 February 
1657, m tne King's apartments, in the presence of their 
Majesties, Monsieur, the Cardinal, the Princesses de 
Conti and de Carignan, and others. 

"The following day," says the Gazette de France, 
" this distinguished company repaired to the Queen's 
apartments, the Comte de Soissons escorting his be- 
trothed, who was dressed in a gown of silver cloth, 
with a bouquet of pearls on her head, valued at more 
than 50,000 livres, and so many jewels that their 
splendour, joined to the natural eclat of her beauty, 
caused her to be admired by every one. Immediately 
afterwards, the nuptials were celebrated in the Queen's 
chapel. Then the illustrious pair, after dining with the 
Princesse de Carignan in the apartments of Mile, de 
Mancini, ascended to those of his Eminence, where 
they were entertained to a magnificent supper, at which 
the King and Monsieur did the company the honour 
of joining them, although preparations had only been 
made for members of the family." 

The two following days were devoted by the bride to 
receiving the visits of the Court. " On the 20th, the 
Queen, who, on this occasion, acted, so to speak, the 
part of mother to the Comtesse de Soissons, accompanied 
her to Notre-Dame to hear Mass, and then returned 
with her to the Louvre, whither came her mother-in- 
law, the Princesse de Carignan, to conduct her to the 

1 The last Comte de Soissons was Louis de Bourbon, brother of the 
Princesse de Carignan. He was killed at the battle of La Marfee, in 
1 64 1 , and, as he left no legitimate issue, the title had become extinct. 



62 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Hotel de Soissons, and testified to her, by her joy and 
the rich presents which she made her, how great is the 
satisfaction with which she regards this marriage." 

Olympe was also well satisfied with the arrangement, 
notwithstanding that she had, at one time, hoped for a 
higher destiny — for nothing less than a throne ; not a 
ducal one, such as her cousin Laure Martinozzi shared, 
but the first throne in Europe. 

Desirous of confining the royal favour as far as 
possible to himself and his family, Mazarin had from 
the first encouraged the intimacy between the young 
King and his elder nieces, which had begun from the 
time of the arrival of the latter in France. It was 
Olympe to whom Louis attached himself. Brought up, 
so to speak, with the King, who was the same age as her- 
self, she had taken more share than her sisters or cousin 
in his boyish amusements, and the preference he had 
always shown for her increased as he grew older. 
Olympe's quickness and tact were remarkable even in 
her childish days. Even then she never forgot that her 
playfellow was a King, whose favour was to be won, a 
possible lover whose homage was to be secured, and 
shaped her course accordingly, ever ready to enter into 
the pursuits of the young sovereign, to divine his 
tastes, to anticipate his wishes. 

Although never beautiful, the girl improved vastly 
in appearance as the years went by. At the age of 
eighteen, Madame de Motteville, who had drawn so 
unflattering a portrait of her on her arrival in France, 
thus describes her : " Her eyes were full of fire, her 
complexion had become beautiful, her face less thin, her 
cheeks took dimples which gave her a fresh charm, she 
had fine arms and beautiful hands." And the chronicler 
adds : " She certainly seemed charming in the eyes 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 63 

of the King, and sufficiently pretty to indifferent spec- 
tators." 

The attachment of the King for Mile. Olympe soon 
became an affair of importance, which greatly occupied 
both Court and town. People began to ask themselves 
whether the Cardinal, who did not find even Princes of 
the Blood too highly placed for his nieces, and who had 
lately married one to the heir-apparent of a reigning 
duke, would set any bounds to his ambition. Mazarin, 
as we shall presently show, had very different matri- 
monial views for his young master ; but he certainly 
seems to have looked with a far from unfavourable eye 
upon Louis's penchant for Olympe, which enabled him 
to keep the King under his care, and ambitious and 
possibly hostile beauties at a distance ; and his star 
shone with such brilliancy just then that Olympe be- 
came the divinity of the Court, and every one hastened 
to burn incense at her feet. 

Anne of Austria, on her side, regarded her son's 
attention to the young lady with complacency, though 
Madame de Motteville tells us that she could not en- 
dure to hear any one speak of the affair as one that 
might perchance become legitimate. " The greatness of 
her soul had a perfect horror of such abasement." 
Another queen, the eccentric Christina of Sweden, who 
passed through France in 1656, was of a different 
opinion, and declared that " it would be very wrong 
not to let two young people so admirably suited to one 
another marry as soon as possible." 

As we have seen, nothing came of this affair, for 
Louis showed no inclination to abase himself, and 
Olympe soon came to the conclusion that her best 
chance of obtaining the power and influence she coveted 
lay in some less illustrious union. Her mortification 



64 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

was intense at seeing her cousins, Anne-Marie and 
Laure Martinozzi, preferred by the Prince de Conti 
and Alfonso d'Este, nor was it lessened when the 
Marquis de la Meilleraye, to whom the Cardinal offered 
her, as he had previously her sister Marie, gravely 
assured his Eminence that he wished to marry "pour 
faire son salut" and that, as he felt an inconceivable 
aversion to Olympe, marriage with her would be "juste- 
ment le grand chemin de la damnation ." 

Compensation, however, for these disappointments 
was forthcoming in her union with the Comte de 
Soissons, which raised her to the rank of a Princess 
of the Blood, and provided her with an indulgent 
husband, who adored his wife when he was at home, 
and whose frequent absences with the army gave her 
ample opportunity for enjoying the society of her 
admirers. 

Louis XIV did not testify the least annoyance at the 
announcement of the marriage, and his cheerful looks at 
the ceremony caused the Queen to remark to Madame 
de Motteville, who had endeavoured to disquiet her on 
the matter : " Did I not tell you that there was nothing 
to fear from this liaison?' 

In spite, however, of the perfect indifference shown 
by the King at the moment of the marriage, he con- 
tinued to visit the lady with the greatest regularity ; 
indeed, scarcely a day went by on which his Majesty's 
coach did not stop at the gate of the Hotel de Soissons ; 
and Olympe, basking in the rays of the royal favour, 
rapidly took her place as the brilliant, intriguing great 
lady that Nature intended her to be. 

It may, perhaps, be asked of what character were 
the relations between the King and countess. We 
are inclined to think that the young sovereign was 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 65 

hardly so indiscreet with the matron as he had been 
with the maid, as, from the confidences of contemporary 
writers, it would appear that the age of innocence had 
passed for him. 

When Louis was but sixteen, his attention was 
attracted by a certain Mile, de la Motte d'Argencourt, 
"who had neither dazzling beauty nor extraordinary 
intelligence, but whose whole person was agreeable." 
His predilection for her society became so very marked 
that the Queen and Mazarin grew uneasy, and the 
former, one evening when Louis had conversed with 
the young lady rather longer than she deemed prudent, 
rebuked him sharply and openly. The monarch re- 
ceived the maternal reprimand "with respect and 
gentleness"; but it would not appear to have had much 
effect, for, shortly afterwards, we hear of him speaking 
to Mile, de la Motte " as a man in love, who was no 
longer virtuous," and assuring her that, if she would 
only return his affection, he would defy both the Queen 
and the Cardinal. The lady, however, from motives 
either of virtue or policy, declined to entertain his 
proposals, and the Queen having pointed out to her 
son that " he was wandering from the path of inno- 
cence," the King was moved to tears, confessed himself 
in his oratory, and then departed for Vincennes, in the 
hope that a change of scene might assist him in 
subjugating his passion. After a few days' absence, he 
returned, fully determined never to speak to Mile, de la 
Motte again ; but, " not being yet wholly strengthened," 
so far departed from his resolution as to dance with her 
at a ball, with the result that he was on the point of 
succumbing once more, when the Queen and the 
Cardinal put an end to the affair by packing the damsel 
off to a convent at Chaillot, where, Madame de Motte- 



66 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

ville assures us, " she led a life that was very tranquil 
and very happy." * 

The Queen's vigilance was, however, powerless to 
save the young sovereign from the wiles of the intrigu- 
ing femme de ckambre, Madame de Beauvais, the same 
lady who had lent herself to the schemes of the pre- 
sumptuous Jarze, and had received a term of exile for 
her pains. Madame de Beauvais, called by her royal 
mistress "Cateau la borgnesse" was very far from being 
beautiful, while her youth was only a memory ; but she 
was " a woman of experience," who possessed " Vhumeur 
galante au dernier point" \ and she had the distinction of 
opening that famous list which contains the names of 
La Valliere and Montespan. 

After this singular debut, the monarch addressed the 
same homage to " une petite jardiniere" by whom he had 
a daughter, who was brought up without scandal and 
married secretly to a gentleman of some position. 
Then we hear of a galanterie with the beautiful Duchesse 
de Chatillon, beloved of the great Conde; of an un- 
successful attack upon that impregnable fortress of 
virtue, the Princesse de Conti ; and of an equally 
abortive attempt to woo a marvellous young beauty, 
Elisabeth de Tarneau by name, " who had the prudence 
to refuse him so much as an interview." From all of 
which it will be gathered that the French ecclesiastic 
who gravely assured the Pope that Louis at twenty was 
" as chaste as he had been on the day of his baptism," 
must have been either a most unblushing prevaricator 
of the truth or singularly ill-informed in regard to the 
doings of the Court. 

To judge by the Comtesse de Soissons's subsequent 
history, she was not the kind of woman to be over- 

1 " Memoires de Madame de Motteville." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 67 

fastidious as to the means she employed to retain in her 
chains this illustrious captive. It is true that other 
chains often drew him away ; but Olympe knew how 
to make the most of her good fortune. It was much 
that the King remained constant, at least in his visits, 
and left her all the prestige of favour. 

On the strength of this favour, the young lady seems 
to have given herself intolerable airs, and to have 
treated even members of the Royal Family with the 
coolest insolence. La Grande Mademoiselle ■,* reconciled 
with the Court in the early summer of 1657, in- 
stalled herself at Saint-Cloud, prior to rejoining their 
Majesties, who were then in Flanders. Although she 
had been so long absent from the Court, Mademoiselle 
was well informed of all that went on there, and was, in 
consequence, very curious to see the lady to whom the 
King was reported to be paying so much attention. 
Olympe, being then enceinte, had been compelled, to her 
intense disgust, to remain in Paris, and was in a very 
bad humour when her mother-in-law, the Princesse de 
Carignan, brought her to visit the princess, who has left 
us the following account of their interview : — 

"'I bring you my daughter-in-law,' said Madame de 
Carignan to me, l she is enceinte ; she came in a litter.' I 
went to receive her ; Madame de Carignan paid me 
many compliments. As for her daughter-in-law, she 
said nothing. It was warm, and there were a great many 
people about me ; and I said to Mile, de Guise and to 
Madame d'Epernon : *Pray take the Comtesse de Soissons 
into my cabinet, lest she should be incommoded here, 
and I will join her in a moment' ; which they did. 
Madame de Carignan remained with the rest of the com- 

1 Anne Marie Louise d' Orleans, Duchesse de Montpensier, eldest 
daughter of Gaston d'Orleans (Monsieur), younger brother of Louis XIII. 



68 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

pany. The Comtesse de Soissons was for a long time 
silent, when all of a sudden she asked me : * Why do 
you not wear your ruffles like other people ? ' I told 
her that they inconvenienced me. To which she 
answered : c If you think that it makes your arms look 
more beautiful, you are mistaken.' She then added : 
* My mother-in-law is very tiresome ; she is so afraid 
that I shall hurt myself that she follows me everywhere.' 
I paid her a thousand compliments on the obligations 
under which the Cardinal had placed me ; said that I 
loved all who belonged to him ; that her marriage had 
given me the greatest joy, and that I hoped to see her 
often and to be friends with her. To all of which she 
answered me not a word. I did not find her so pretty 
as I had been told, and, when 1 looked at her, I could 
not understand how the King had ever fallen in love 
with her. I praised her very much in every way ; she 
received it all with an indifference and in a silence which 
astonished every one." 

The mortification of the Comtesse de Soissons at 
being prevented from following the Court to Flanders, 
which resulted in her showing such a peculiarly unpleas- 
ing side of her character to Mademoiselle^ was due to the 
fact that she was just then occupied in doing her utmost 
to combat Louis XIV's penchant for her sister Marie, 
and feared that, during her enforced absence from the 
field, it could hardly fail to make material progress. 

Soon after Olympe's marriage, the Cardinal had per- 
mitted Marie to take the place at Court of which her 
mother's dislike had so unjustly deprived her. "The 
death of my mother and the marriage of my sister 
Olympe," she writes, i( having rendered me more inde- 
pendent, and, enjoying all the privileges belonging to 
the right of the eldest, of which I was in possession, I 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 69 

passed a life of sufficient tranquillity and began to taste 
its sweets. Contentment of mind always contributes to 
the favourable development of the body, and the con- 
dition in which I found myself at that time was a 
sufficiently convincing proof of it for me. I was not 
recognisable, and I am able to say that prosperity had 
been of as much advantage to my mind as to my body, 
and had greatly augmented its vivacity and gaiety." 1 

In point of fact, Marie's appearance, like that of 
Olympe, had already improved to a really remarkable 
degree. Her features, though too irregular for beauty, 
were good ; she had large and brilliant black eyes, 
splendid teeth, and a delightful smile ; while the ex- 
treme mobility of her countenance endowed her with a 
singular charm. Her complexion was of the purest 
olive ; her hair jet black and abundant ; her figure supple 
and well made, and she had very pretty hands and feet. 
In a word, she had become a dangerously attractive 
young woman, who, without ever approaching the per- 
fect loveliness of her sister Hortense, was perhaps more 
capable of inspiring a true passion. Louis XIV is the 
proof of it. His liking for the girl, which had begun 
during his visits to her dying mother, increased rapidly 
now that her participation in the gaieties of the Court 
threw them constantly together, and, during a visit to 
Fontainebleau which the Court paid in the autumn of 
1657, it became apparent to all that this liking was 
gradually developing into a much warmer feeling. 

The young monarch, as we have related, had already 
made several excursions into the realms of gallantry ; 
but, though he had loved, he had never been beloved, 
perhaps because, as one writer suggests, he was still very 
timid with women : a callow youth, who blushed and 
1 " La Verite sur son jour." 



70 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

paled when a pretty girl held his hand, and who mingled 
with unlawful pleasures floods of remorseful tears. The 
thought that he had at last excited a grande passion^ one 
of those turbulent emotions which he felt to be equally 
the due of his handsome face and fine figure and of his 
exalted position, could not be otherwise than soothing 
to his vanity. He began to pay increased attention to 
Marie Mancini, and the more he saw of her, the more 
she pleased him. He spoke to her " avec application" 
says Madame de Motteville, and was carried away like 
a straw before the hurricane. 

And there can be no doubt that Marie loved him — 
loved, that is to say, the man apart from the king. The 
" Memoires " of her sister Hortense, who, it goes with- 
out saying, was her confidante, leaves us in no uncer- 
tainty on this point. 

" As she (Marie)," she writes, " had a serious attach- 
ment for the King, she would have been very glad to 
see me affected by a similar weakness. But my extreme 
youth did not permit me to attach myself to anything, 
and all that I could do to oblige her was to show some 
particular complaisance towards those of the young 
people we saw who diverted me most in the childish 
games which then occupied my attention. The presence 
of the King, who seldom stirred from our lodging, 
often interrupted us. Although he lived among us 
with a marvellous kindness, he had always something 
so serious and so solid, not to say majestic, in all his 
ways, that he could not help inspiring us with respect, 
even contrary to his intention. My sister alone was 
undisturbed, and you can easily understand that his 
assiduity had charms for her, who was the cause of it, 
because it had none for others. As the things which 
passion does make us seem ridiculous to those who have 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 71 

never known what that passion is, my sister's exposed 
her very frequently to our raillery." 1 

Soon the King's predilection for Mile. Marie's 
society became the all-absorbing topic of conversation, 
and rumours of it reached Queen Christina of Sweden, 
who one day remarked, in her blunt way, to Louis : 
" If I were in your place, I should marry a person whom 
I loved." As for Marie, if she had not been already 
aware of the growing attachment of the young monarch, 
the attention of the courtiers, and particularly of the 
ladies, towards her would soon have revealed it. 

Mazarin, in its early stages, seems to have viewed the 
very marked inclination of the King for his niece with 
complacency, probably regarding the affair as a mere 
boy and girl attachment, and even lent himself to it, so 
far as to provide the young lady with a number of 
ravishing toilettes, which enabled her to more than 
hold her own in the Court festivities. The Queen, on 
her part, placed no obstacle in the way of her son's 
attentions, preferring to see him engaged in what she 
imagined to be a harmless flirtation than imperilling 
his salvation by wearing the chains of the Duchesse de 
Chatillon or some other notorious beauty. 

The young girl's influence over her royal admirer 
increased daily. Olympe had shared his pleasures, 
accommodated herself to his tastes ; Marie sought and 
succeeded in inspiring him with a desire to share 
hers. Although skilled in all bodily exercises — horse- 
manship, dancing, and the use of arms — Louis XIV, at 
the age of twenty, was profoundly ignorant. His mind 
was one which required stimulating, and no one had 
as yet taken that trouble. The germs of those qualities 
which made a great monarch of a man of mediocre intel- 
1 " Memoires de la Duchesse de Mazarin." 



72 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

lect were there, but these germs had had neither light 
nor air to expand. " Marie Mancini became his friend, 
and it was like an irruption of the sun into an en- 
closed and gloomy spot. He learnt and understood 
more in six months than he had since he came into the 
world. 

" She opened to him the world of heroes — heroes 
of love, heroes of constancy and self-sacrifice, heroes of 
glory. She revealed to him the sentiments great or 
subtle, passionate or noble, which made life precious. 
She reproached him with his ignorance, and constituted 
herself his preceptress, teaching him Italian, filling his 
hands with poems, romances, and tragedies, reading to 
him herself verse and prose, in an amorous voice, with 
intonations which soothed or intoxicated him. She 
accustomed him to serious conversations with men of 
age and merit, excited him to emulation, and aided him 
to acquire nobility and correctness of expression. To 
her is due also the little taste for the arts that he 
possessed. 

"He owed her more than all that. She made him 
ashamed of being without ambition, without dreams 
either worthy or unworthy, without desires more lofty 
than the choice of a costume or a pas de ballet — made 
him, in a word, remember that he was King, and gave 
him the idea of being a great king. He never forgot 
the lesson." 1 

Louis, who had loved the girl at first because she 
loved him and intended that he should reciprocate her 
passion, ended by loving her spontaneously, from a 
nobler motive, because he recognised in her a superior 
mind, contact with which opened to his own unknown 
horizons. 

1 Arvede Barine, " Princesses et grandes dames : Marie Mancini." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 73 

The close of the year 1657, was marked by an unto- 
ward event, which occasioned Mazarin profound sorrow. 
His youngest nephew, Alphonse Mancini, who had 
arrived in France at the same time as his little sister 
Marianne, had been sent, like his brothers Paul and 
Philippe before him, to the Jesuit College at Clermont, 
from which glowing accounts as to his progress in his 
studies reached the gratified Cardinal. During the 
Christmas festivities, he was playing with the other 
scholars, when, tired of their ordinary games, some one 
suggested that they should toss one another in a blanket. 
All went well until it came to Alphonse's turn to 
undergo that not over-pleasant experience, when the 
little Abbe d'Harcourt, who was very weak, allowed the 
corner of the blanket he held to slip from his hand, with 
the result that Alphonse fell to the floor and fractured 
his skull. Four surgeons were quickly on the spot, but 
all their skill was unavailing, and the unhappy lad died 
on 16 January 1658. "He had nearly completed his 
studies," says Mademoiselle, " and showed remarkable 
intelligence. He was un esprit vif, and the Cardinal, I 
have heard people say, had entertained such great hopes 
for him that he was about to remove him from college, 
and intended to keep him near his person and accustom 
him to affairs, to have him to sleep in his own chamber, 
speak of everything before him, and show him all the 
despatches that he received and wrote." Mazarin was 
in despair at Alphonse's death, which he appears to have 
felt even more keenly than that of his brother Paul. 
On receiving the news he left for Vincennes, where he 
shut himself up for ten days and refused to see any one. 

By the irony of fate, Philippe Mancini, the only 
nephew who now remained to the Cardinal, was precisely 
the one whom Mazarin could not endure, and for whom 



74 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

he always evinced the greatest aversion. However, if 
Philippe, who was an amiable young man, though some- 
what frivolous, had not succeeded in gaining his uncle's 
favour, he had won the affection of the King, who, in 
January 1657, appointed him captain of his company 
of Musketeers, Charles de Baatz de Castelmore, Comte 
d'Artagnan, the hero of Dumas's immortal romance, 
being nominated lieutenant of the same company, in 
order that his military knowledge might supplement 
that of his superior officer. 

The winter of 1657-8 was a particularly brilliant one 
at the Court, balls, fetes, and ballets following one 
another in rapid succession. The taste which the King 
had early evinced for the last of these entertainments 
showed no sign of diminishing, and he figured in nearly 
all of them, together with Marie Mancini. At the 
same time, his Majesty continued to visit the Hotel 
de Soissons and to pay considerable attention to its 
mistress ; probably, he feared to incur that lady's resent- 
ment by a too abrupt desertion, foreseeing that she 
might prove a dangerous enemy. 

The countess, on her side, though perfectly well 
aware that her younger sister had already supplanted 
her in the royal affections, pretended to ignore it, and 
in public lost no opportunity of flaunting her intimacy 
with his Majesty. Mademoiselle writes : — 

" Madame la Marechale de l'Hopital gave a ball, to 
which we went in masks and dressed in gold and silver 
stuffs and caps and plumes ; the men wore silk stockings 
and coats covered with embroidery. When we entered, 
we wore our masks, which, however, we immediately 
removed. . . . We repaired to a room magnificently decor- 
ated for refreshments, but, as there was only one cover 
and one armchair, the King said to me, * Sit down 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 75 

there, my cousin ; it is your place.' I cried out at 
that, as if he spoke in jest ; he rejoined, ' Who will 
take it ? ' The Comtesse de Soissons smiled and said : 
c I will sit there.' In fact, she proceeded to take it, 
although Monsieur, the King's brother, said, * Do not 
go there.' This familiarity with the King surprised 
me, for it was not so before I left the Court. All 
seated themselves at table ; the King was the last to sit 
down, saying, as he did so, l Since there is no other 
seat but this, I must needs take it." He helped himself 
to no dish that he did not offer to others, and begged 
us to eat with him. For myself, who had been brought 
up in the greatest respect for etiquette, all this astonished 
me very much, and it was long before I could accustom 
myself to it. 

" On my preparing to leave, the King said to the 
Comtesse de Soissons, * Let us take my cousin home.' 
She said that she was quite willing. We set off* at full 
speed, and so quickly that the King's Guards, who were 
on horseback, had great difficulty in keeping up with 
us. The streets of Paris were so unsafe at night at this 
period, that the King said gaily, seeing his Guards so 
far behind the coach, ' How delighted I should be if 
robbers would attack us ! ' His Majesty's coach was 
left far behind, so that until it came up, we walked on 
the terrace in the court of the Luxembourg, the 3rd of 
February, at three o'clock in the morning, as if it were 
the month of July." 

In the course of that winter, Louis XIV had a 
passing fancy for a certain Mile, de la Motte-Houdan- 
court, whom several writers confound with the Mile, de 
la Motte d'Argencourt already mentioned. ( Nothing 
was talked of but this new friendship of the King," says 
Mademoiselle; "and all the men were glad, hoping that 



76 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

it would make him more gay." The Queen and the 
Cardinal, however, nipped the affair in the bud. " The 
King was closeted for three hours with her Majesty 
and his Eminence, and at the break up of the conference 
took no more notice of La Motte." 

At the end of April 1658, the King and Queen 
quitted Paris and proceeded to Amiens ; and Turenne 
having resolved to lay siege to Dunkerque, the Court 
established itself at Calais, from which town Louis paid 
frequent visits to Mardyck, which Turenne had made 
his headquarters. 

On these visits, the King was only accompanied by a 
small escort, and did not bring with him any of the 
comforts and luxuries with which he usually travelled ; 
but shared Turenne's quarters, though that general was 
very indifferently lodged, and his soldier's fare. Under 
ordinary circumstances, this rough life might have had 
no ill effects upon his Majesty ; but summer arrived 
with almost tropical heat, water was difficult to procure, 
while the decomposing bodies of those who had fallen 
in the campaign of the previous year and lay but half 
buried in the sand, tainted the air and rendered the 
camp a perfect plague-spot. 

On 23 June, Turenne having defeated the relieving 
army under Conde and Don Juan of Austria, in the 
Battle of the Dunes, Dunkerque capitulated ; but the 
rejoicings over this success did not last long, as a week 
later Louis XIV fell dangerously ill of a malignant 
fever, the result of the hardships he had voluntarily 
undergone during his visits to the army, and of breath- 
ing for entire days the pestilential air of Mardyck. 

For a fortnight, the young King was in great danger, 
and the doctors in attendance could only hold out very 
slight hopes of his recovery. Paris was in consterna- 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 77 

tion, and the Holy Sacrament was exposed in all the 
churches ; while the proteges of Mazarin were in the 
utmost alarm, fearing that Louis's death might involve 
their patron's downfall. 

" We are in the gravest anxiety here in regard to the 
illness of the King," writes Colbert to the Cardinal. 
" M. de Langlade, who will bring this note to your 
Eminence, will be able to tell you the bad news that 
reached us yesterday evening. God grant that it may 
not be true ! But, in God's name, Monseigneur, let 
your Eminence give orders to some one to despatch a 
courier daily to this town, as I am of the opinion of all 
your Eminence's servants, that it is of very great import- 
ance that we should be advised every moment of what 
is happening in so delicate and grave a matter. If the 
news be good, we shall take steps to make it public ; if 
it be bad, we shall use it as appears to us most ad- 
vantageous for the service of the King and of your 
Eminence." l 

This letter was written on 7 July. The news of the 
following day was very grave : the doctors had prac- 
tically abandoned hope, and the Viaticum had been 
administered ; and the houses of Colbert and other 
important persons who were believed to be in re- 
ceipt of private information were besieged by excited 
crowds. 

As a forlorn hope, a doctor from Abbeville, Du 
Saussois by name, who enjoyed a great local reputation, 
was called in, and, after a long consultation with Vallot, 
first physician to the King, it was decided to try the 
effect of an emetic wine, a remedy then but little known. 
The experiment was attended with complete success ; in 
a few days the royal patient was declared out of danger, 
1 Letter cited by Lucien Perey, " Le Roman du Grand Roi." 



78 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

and on 22 July was so far recovered as to allow of his 
being removed to Compiegne by easy stages. 

One can well imagine the varied feelings which 
animated the Court during that fortnight of anxious 
suspense, while the King's life and all that depended 
upon it trembled in the balance : the anguish of the 
Queen ; the feverish anxiety of Mazarin, divided be- 
tween grief for the master to whom he was tenderly 
attached and fears for his own position in the event of 
the illness having a fatal termination ; the ill-concealed 
joy of the personal friends of Monsieur ; the painful 
uncertainty of those who knew not whether to weep for 
the declining or to pay court to the rising sun. To few 
indeed, we fear, save the devoted mother, did the 
thought of the premature death of the young prince 
occasion a genuine and disinterested grief ; but, among 
these last, no one was so much remarked as Marie 
Mancini, who, unable to conceal or to moderate her 
feelings, gave way to a despair which was the talk of the 
whole Court. " Marie," writes Madame de la Fayette, 
" had testified an affection so violent, and had so little con- 
cealed it, that when he grew better every one spoke to 
him of the grief of Mile, de Mancini, and perhaps in 
the sequel she spoke of it to him herself. In short, she 
gave proof of so much passion, and broke through so 
completely the restraints which the Queen-Mother and 
the Cardinal imposed upon her, that one may say that 
she constrained the King to love her." 1 

In striking contrast to the passionate grief of Marie, 
her sister Madame de Soissons evinced the most pro- 
found indifference during the King's illness. " She did 
not show the regret that one would have expected of 
her," says Mademoiselle , " in view of the friendship 

1 " Histoire de Madame Henriette d'Angleterre." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 79 

that the King had shown for her. The Queen said to 
her one day, * Every time I see you, I desire to weep ; 
you make me think of my grief.' She made no reply 
whatever, but turned and inquired of those who were 
with her, { What did the Queen say ? ' " 

In the early autumn, the Court removed from Com- 
piegne to Fontainebleau, where, as is so often the 
case with persons who have recently passed through 
a dangerous illness, Louis XIV gave himself up with 
whole-hearted zest to every kind of pleasure, and gaiety 
reigned supreme. There were balls and fetes, perform- 
ances by the French and Italian players, excursions by 
water, and picnics in the forest. On one occasion, 
Monsieur gave a " collation," at the hermitage of 
Franchard, whither the whole Court proceeded on 
horseback and in gala dress. The King, who was in 
high spirits, took into his head to ascend the rocks 
which surrounded the hermitage — " the most incon- 
venient possible to imagine," says Mademoiselle, " and 
where you would have supposed only goats could ever 
have been before." He was accompanied in this perilous 
adventure by Marie Mancini, while the Marquis 
d'Alluye lent his assistance to Marie's friend, Mile, 
du Fouilloux. On reaching the summit, Louis, in 
a spirit of mischief, sent orders to the rest of the party, 
who had remained in the garden of the hermitage, 
to follow him, preceded by a band of violin players, 
which Monsieur had provided for the entertainment 
of his guests. We were obliged to obey," continues 
Mademoiselle, " though it was not without difficulty ; 
and we no sooner resolved to venture than we found 
ourselves obliged to return. I am surprised that no 
one was hurt, for we ran the greatest risk of having our 



80 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

arms and legs broken, and even of fracturing our skulls. 
I think that the prayers of the good hermit must have 
preserved us. After supper, we returned en caleche, 
accompanied by a number of men bearing torches, and, 
on our arrival, went to the play." 

During the visit to Fontainebleau, the intimacy 
between Louis XIV and Marie Mancini made rapid 
progress : and, if Marie had had to wait longer 
than her sisters for her share of the good things of life, 
she was now abundantly compensated. Neither the 
Queen nor the Cardinal placed any obstacle in the way 
of her enjoyment of the society of her royal admirer, 
although the jealous Comtesse de Soissons complained 
bitterly to her uncle of Louis's predilection for her 
younger sister. But Mazarin still believed, or more 
probably feigned to believe, that the affair was of no 
consequence, and made no attempt to interfere. From 
Marie's " Memoires," however, it is evident that his 
Majesty's passion was now approaching a high tempera- 
ture, and that the fact was patent not only to herself, but 
to the whole Court. 

" The King's kindness was so great, that we lived on 
terms of familiarity with both him and Monsieur, and, 
since this familiarity permitted me to say what I thought 
with a certain degree of freedom, perhaps I said it with 
some agreeableness. I continued still to do the same 
during a visit that the Court paid to Fontainebleau (for 
we followed it everywhere), and, on my return from this 
visit, I perceived that I did not displease the King, as 
I had already sufficient knowledge to understand that 
eloquent silence which often persuades more than all the 
fine speeches in the world. Perhaps, also, the penchant 
and the inclination that I had for his Majesty, in 
whom I recognised more merit than in any one in his 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 81 

realm, rendered me more intelligent in this matter than 
I had been on another occasion. 

" However, the testimony of my eyes was not enough 
to cause me to believe a matter of this consequence ; 
but the courtiers, who are as so many eyes which watch 
over the actions of kings, perceiving also, as well as 
myself, his Majesty's inclination, speedily confirmed 
me in the opinion that I had formed by their extra- 
ordinary respect and deference. And the attentions of 
the King, the magnificent presents which I received, his 
care, his empressements i and the kindness that he showed 
for me in all things, soon ended by persuading me 
altogether." 1 

On the return of the Court to Paris, it was remarked 
that the King did not resume his accustomed visits to 
the Hotel de Soissons ; while, on the other hand, not 
an evening passed on which he did not engage the 
younger sister in conversation, his manner on these 
occasions partaking far more of that of the lover than 
of the gracious sovereign. An event of the highest 
importance, however, now arrived to interrupt what 
that young lady calls her " ravishing prosperity." 

1 " La Verite dans son jour." 



CHAPTER V 

Mazarin's project of marrying Louis XIV to the Infanta Maria Theresa 
— Negotiations between France and Savoy in regard to the King's 
marriage with the Princess Margherita — The Cardinal arranges a 
meeting between the two Courts at Lyons — His object — Departure 
of their Majesties and the Court for Lyons — "The King always 
near Mile, de Mancini" — He ignores the Comtesse de Soissons — 
Incident at Dijon — Arrival at Lyons — Meeting between Louis XIV 
and the Princess Margherita — Empress ement of the King — Arrival of 
a secret envoy from Spain with an offer of peace and the Infanta's 
hand — Conversation between Louis XIV and Marie Mancini — 
Sudden change in the King's attitude towards the Princess Margherita 
— The Duke of Savoy and Hortense Mancini — Rupture of the 
marriage negotiations with Savoy — The Princess Margherita and her 
mother leave Lyons — Marie Mancini makes a great resolve — Intimacy 
between her and Louis XIV at Lyons — A watchful gouverncmte — 
The Court returns to Paris. 

T?OR more than fifteen years, and through many strange 
vicissitudes, Mazarin had steadily pursued the pro- 
ject of marrying Louis to the Infanta Maria Theresa of 
Spain. His object for desiring this union was twofold. 
In the first place, a closer connexion between France and 
Spain would leave the Emperor isolated in Europe and 
render him practically impotent. In the second, it was 
more than possible that it might, sooner or later, be 
the means of giving the crown of Spain to the House 
of Bourbon, for, as his letters to the French plenipoten- 
tiaries at the Congress of Westphalia indicate, the astute 
Cardinal had resolved to so frame the marriage-contract 
that there would be little difficulty in contesting the 

82 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 83 

validity of any renunciation of her rights on the part 
of the Infanta. 1 

Since 1648, when the Peace of Westphalia was con- 
cluded with the Emperor, more than one attempt had 
been made to conclude peace on the basis of another 
Franco-Spanish marriage. But, as Philip IV had no 
male issue, and the Infanta would, in consequence, 
have carried with her to France the right of succession 
to the crown of Spain, the Court of Madrid had 
hitherto received the Cardinal's proposals with marked 
coldness. 

Of late, however, the situation had been materially 
modified. In 1657, the Queen of Spain had given 
birth to a son, an event which placed two lives be- 
tween the Infanta and the throne, and very sensibly 
diminished that princess's matrimonial value ; while 
France had gained great advantage in the field, and it 
was becoming increasingly difficult for Spain, with troops 
disheartened by defeat and an impoverished Treasury, 
to continue the struggle. 

Indirect negotiations were accordingly opened, but as 
the Court of Madrid showed its customary vacillation, 
Mazarin resolved on a very adroit manoeuvre, with the 
object of forcing it to come to a decision. 

For some time past both France and Spain had been 
making great efforts to secure the alliance of Savoy, a 
State which had been originally on the side of France, 
but had now for many years maintained a strict neutra- 
lity. Savoy was then governed by Christine de France, 
second daughter of Henry IV, and widow of Victor 
Amadeus I, who, on the death of her husband in 1637, 

1 Mr. J. B. Perkins, " France under Richelieu and Mazarin." 



84 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

had been declared Regent and guardian of her son, 
Charles Emmanuel II, and her three daughters. 1 

The Duchess, a shrewd and sagacious woman, a worthy 
daughter of Henry IV, at first declined to commit her- 
self to either side. When pressed by Mazarin, however, 
she finally replied that she would take the part of 
France, on condition of the marriage of Louis XIV to 
her second daughter Margherita. The Cardinal did not 
see his way to satisfy her in this matter, having more 
exalted views for his young master ; but after the Battle 
of the Dunes, with Flanders half conquered and the 
Milanese greatly weakened by the capture of Valenza 
and Mortara, he was naturally reluctant to pause in his 
triumphant career, and, since he was unable to push his 
conquests in Italy without a passage for French troops 
through Piedmont and the assistance of Savoy, he deter- 
mined, in the event of a definite refusal from Madrid of 
the Infanta's hand, and the consequent prolongation of 
the war, to agree to the Duchess's terms. He, therefore, 
accepted the project of marriage, but under the reserva- 
tion that no definite decision should be arrived at until 
Louis XIV had had an opportunity of seeing the 
Princess Margherita ; and he requested the Duchess to 
bring her daughter to Lyons, the place which he had 
selected for the interview. Christine readily accepted 
this proposition, and the end of November 1658 was 
fixed for the meeting of the two Courts. 

No secrecy whatever was made of the proposed meet- 
ing, Mazarin hoping that so soon as the news reached 
Madrid, Philip IV would hasten to intervene with an 
offer of his daughter's hand, when, of course, he intended 

1 Charles Emmanuel II had been declared of age in June 1648, but 
his mother continued to keep the authority in her hands down to the time 
of her death, 27 December 1663. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 85 

to break off immediately all negotiations with Savoy. 
It was a masterly move, and, as we shall see, was attended 
with complete success. 

When this journey to Lyons was first mooted, Louis 
XIV had decided to proceed thither accompanied only 
by the Cardinal and his gentlemen-in-ordinary, leaving 
the Queen and the rest of the Court in Paris. Subse- 
quently, however, he begged his mother to accompany 
him, declaring that he did not like to part from her for 
even a brief period, and that her assistance was essential 
to enable him to arrive at a decision on a matter of such 
importance. The Queen consented willingly enough, 
and determined to take with her Mademoiselle, all her 
maids-of-honour, and the Cardinal's nieces, who always 
formed part of her entourage. 

In the opinion of Marie Mancini's latest biographer, 
Lucien Perey, it was that young lady who had in- 
duced the King to make this alteration in his plans, 
knowing that, in the event of the Queen going to 
Lyons, she would accompany her, and would thus be in 
a position to bring all her influence to bear upon Louis 
to prevent him deciding in favour of the Princess 
Margherita. 

It is very probable that a similar idea had occurred to 
Mazarin. The Cardinal could no longer pretend to be 
ignorant of Louis's attachment to his niece, but as yet 
he had not judged it necessary to interfere. Underrating 
the independence and obstinacy of the girl's character, 
he hoped to find in her a useful instrument, who, if 
occasion arose, would endeavour to influence the King's 
mind in the direction which he himself thought desirable. 
It would certainly be extremely vexatious if, when 
Philip IV, as he confidently expected him to do, should 
offer his daughter's hand and peace along with it, Louis 



86 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

should have fallen in love with the Princess Margherita 
and insist upon marrying her. In that eventuality, he 
might count upon Marie to save the situation. 

On 26 October, the King and Queen, after hearing 
Mass at Notre-Dame, set out for Lyons, accompanied by 
a numerous and brilliant suite. During the first day's 
journey, his Majesty remained in his coach with his 
mother, Mademoiselle, and the Princess Palatine, 1 the 
surintendante of the Queen's household. But on the 
morrow, as the weather was fine, he suggested to 
Mademoiselle that it would be more pleasant on horse- 
back. " Mile, de Mancini, some of the Queen's ladies, 
and myself did as he proposed. The King was always 
near Mile, de Mancini, with whom he conversed in a 
most gallant manner." 2 

The journey resembled an official progress. Some 
leagues from every town of importance the royal cortege 
was met by the gentry of the neighbourhood dressed in 
their bravest attire, who escorted it as far as the gates, 
where the magistrates and citizens waited to receive 
their young sovereign, whom few of them had ever seen, 
and who, after running so many risks during the Fronde, 
had but lately had so narrow an escape from death. 
Everywhere the utmost enthusiasm prevailed ; on all 
sides nothing was heard but praises of the young 
monarch ; his handsome face, his fine figure, the skill 
with which he managed his high-spirited horse, the grace 
with which he acknowledged the salutations of his loyal 
subjects — all delighted the crowds who flocked to do 
him homage. 

1 Anne de Gonzague, second daughter of Charles de Gonzague, Due 
de Nevers, and wife of Prince Edward of Bavaria, " Count Palatine," 
fourth son of Frederick V, Elector Palatine. She must not be con- 
fused with her niece, Charlotte Elizabeth, the second wife of Monsieur. 

2 " Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 87 

At Dijon, where, on his arrival, the King was met by- 
all the noblesse of Burgundy, with the Due d'Epernon, 
the governor of the province, at their head — the Court 
remained for a fortnight. The States of Burgundy 
were at that time sitting, and Mazarin hoped that the 
presence of their sovereign would serve as a spur to 
their loyalty, and induce them to vote larger subsidies 
than was their custom. 

The King was in the highest spirits. He danced 
every evening, and all the principal people in the 
province, and even in the town, Mademoiselle tells us, 
came to watch him. Every evening, too, he ordered a 
grand collation in lieu of supper, thanks to which 
arrangement he did not sup with the Queen, but 
remained " four or five hours talking with Mile, de 
Mancini." On the other hand, the poor Comtesse de 
Soissons was entirely ignored by her former admirer, 
and in a manner so pointed as to suggest that she had 
contrived to displease seriously his Majesty, presumably 
by complaining to the Cardinal about his intimacy with 
her sister. 

"During the journey," writes Mademoiselle, "the King 
did not address a word to the Comtesse de Soissons, 
and at Dijon it was the same. One day, he did some- 
thing which was remarked by all, although a mere baga- 
telle. During a collation, the Queen sent to him to ask 
for some rissoles, and I made the same request. He 
sent some to the Queen, with whom the Comtesse de 
Soissons was supping, but finding them insufficient, she 
sent to ask for more. The King then sent word that he 
had enough for her and for me, but that there were not 
enough left for himself and his company. Every one 
believed that this was intended to apply to the Comtesse 
de Soissons." 



88 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Before the Court quitted Dijon, the fine weather 
with which it had been favoured since leaving Paris had 
broken up ; notwithstanding which, Louis XIV still 
continued to perform the greater part of each day's 
journey on horseback. The cold and rain had driven 
Mademoiselle and most of the fair equestrians to the 
shelter of the coaches ; but Marie Mancini braved the 
elements and remained his Majesty's inseparable com- 
panion as far as Lyons, which was reached on Monday, 
28 November. 

Next morning, the Queen received warning that 
Madame Royale — as the Duchess of Savoy was called 
in France — and her daughter would reach Lyons on the 
following Friday, 2 December. Their Majesties, the 
Cardinal, Monsieur^ and Mademoiselle went forward to 
meet their guests. Mademoiselle rode in the royal 
coach, an honour which was also accorded to Marechal 
de Villeroi, the governor of the Lyonnais. Grooms 
followed leading the gentlemen's horses. 

"We found all the road filled with splendid equip- 
ages," writes Mademoiselle. "Madame Royale and M. 
de Savoie, her son, 1 had a great number of mules, 
with muleteers and magnificent housings, some of black 
velvet, others of crimson, with their arms embroidered 
on them in gold and silver. The mules of all persons 
of rank had their bells. We met the litiere du corps of 
Madame Royale, preceded by twelve pages dressed 
in black bordered with black velvet, followed by her 
guards with an officer at their head. These wore black 
casaques braided with gold and silver. There was 

1 Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy. He married Jeanne Baptiste 
de Nemours, and died in 1675, leaving a son, Victor Amadeus, born 
1666, who married Anne-Marie d'Orleans, daughter of Monsieur by his 
first marriage with Henrietta of England, and was father of Marie 
Adelaide of Savoy, Duchesse de Bourgogne. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 89 

another litter belonging to Madame Royale, and several 
others. We met a number of coaches, each drawn by 
six horses, followed by footmen in livery, all being 
evidence of a great Court. When they heard that 
Madame Royale was near, they came to inform the 
King, who immediately mounted his horse and went 
to meet her. The Queen said : ' I confess I am im- 
patient to know what the King will think of the 
Princess Margherita.' Yet she showed neither desire 
for nor dislike to the marriage, but observed : c If I 
could have the Infanta, I should be overwhelmed with 
joy. Nevertheless, I cannot but be content with what 
pleases the King. At the same time, I think that he 
would prefer the Princess of England.' " * 

Presently Louis came galloping back, threw himself 
from his horse, and approached the Queen's coach. 
" Eh bien ! my son ? " exclaimed Anne of Austria. The 
King replied, " She is much smaller than Madame la 
Marechale de Villeroi ; her shape is the most graceful 

conceivable. Her complexion " He paused for 

a moment, and then added, " Olive-coloured ; and it 
becomes her well. She has beautiful eyes ; she pleases 
me, and I find her to my liking." 

Immediately afterwards the Duchess of Savoy ap- 
peared ; the coaches stopped, and the two princesses 
descended to greet one another. After an exchange of 
compliments, which appears to have revealed Madame 
Royale in the light of a confirmed flatterer, that lady 
and her two daughters entered the Queen's coach. 
The moment they were seated the King began to talk 
to the Princess Margherita " as if he had known her 
all his life," to the great astonishment of Mademoiselle, 

1 Henrietta-Anne, daughter of Charles I and Henrietta-Maria. 



9 o FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

for the King was naturally cold towards strangers, and 
"very little inclined to be sociable." 

When Lyons was reached, the King conducted the 
Duchess of Savoy to the apartments which had been 
prepared for her reception in the archbishop's palace, 
while the Queen retired to her cabinet, where she was 
immediately joined by the Cardinal, who said : " I have 
some news to tell your Majesty which she does not 
expect, and which will surprise her to the last degree." 
" Is it that the King, my brother, sends to me to offer 
the Infanta ? " eagerly inquired the Queen, " for that is 
what I least expect." " Yes, Madame, it is that," rejoined 
the triumphant Minister. 

The Cardinal's stratagem had indeed been crowned 
with complete success, for almost at the same moment 
as the Duchess of Savoy and her daughters had entered 
Lyons by one gate, Pimentel, a special envoy from 
Philip IV, had entered by another, bearing an offer of 
peace and the Infanta. 1 

Marie Mancini had not formed part of the suite 
which had accompanied their Majesties to meet the 
visitors from Savoy, but had remained at Lyons. So 
soon, however, as the royal party returned, she hastened 
to inquire of Mademoiselle what sort of impression the 
young princess had made upon the King. To which 
that lady — not, we may be sure, without a spice of 
malice — replied : " It seemed to me that she pleased 
him greatly." 

1 Pimentel, travelling in the strictest incognito, since he was unprovided 
with a passport and ran the risk of being made prisoner, if his identity 
were discovered, had arrived at Macon on 19 November, from which 
town he wrote to the Cardinal to acquaint him with the important mission 
with which he was charged. Mazarin, however, kept his arrival a pro- 
found secret, and his dramatic appearance on the very day of the entry of 
the Princess Margherita had been carefully arranged by the Minister. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 91 

Marie said nothing ; but the same evening she had 
a long and very animated conversation with his Majesty. 
What passed on this occasion is a matter for conjecture, 
as etiquette obliged those present to remain at a dis- 
tance. Mademoiselle, however, pretends that the young 
lady was heard to say, in a sarcastic tone, to her com- 
panion : " Are you not ashamed, Sire, at their wishing 
to give you so ugly a wife ? " 

However that may be, by the following morning the 
King's attitude towards the Princess Margherita had 
completely changed. He called upon her at an early 
hour, in order, so it was said, that he might have a view 
of her figure en dishabille 1 , since it was rumoured that 
she was humpbacked, but was as cold as he had been 
assiduous in his attentions on the day of her arrival ; 
conduct, which greatly disconcerted the Duchess of Savoy, 
though the princess herself did not appear to notice 
anything. In the evening, at the Queen's, it was worse 
still. "The King never ceased talking to Mile, de 
Mancini before the Princess Margherita, to whom he 
did not address a single word." From which it would 
appear that, whatever Marie may have taught her royal 
admirer, good manners had certainly not been included 
in the curriculum. 1 

The following day, the Princess Margherita's brother, 

1 It is very improbable that, as several writers have suggested, the 
sudden change in Louis XlV's attitude towards the Princess Margherita 
was due to some hint he had received from Mazarin rather than to the 
influence of the jealous Marie, since Montglat, a well-informed and trust- 
worthy chronicler, tells us that the Cardinal was at first inclined to regard 
Pimentel's mission with considerable suspicion : " He feared that it was 
merely a ruse of the Spaniards to cause the Court of Savoy to leave Lyons 
discontented and offended, to the end that, on its return to Piedmont, it 
might enter into a treaty with them and abandon France, in order to 
avenge the insult which it had received, and that afterwards they would 
refuse to give the Infanta to the King." 



92 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

the Duke of Savoy, a handsome and amiable young 
man, arrived at Lyons. He, like his sister, had come 
with matrimonial intentions, having some thought of 
offering his hand to Mademoiselle^ and, in default of 
her, to one of the Cardinal's nieces. Notwithstanding 
her immense fortune, the Amazonian princess did not 
please him, and he speedily transferred his attentions to 
the beautiful Hortense Mancini, to whom it was an 
open secret the Cardinal intended to bequeath the 
bulk of his wealth. Mazarin would have been willing 
enough to conclude so brilliant an alliance for his 
favourite niece ; but the Duke was not content with 
handsome settlements and the prospect of great wealth. 
He demanded that Pignerol, which belonged at this 
period to France, should be ceded to him, a proposition 
which the Minister declined even to consider. 

Some days passed without any discussion taking place 
between the two Courts in regard to the object which 
had brought them together, during which Louis XIV 
showed the same coldness to the Princess Margherita and 
the same empressement towards Marie Mancini. In the 
meanwhile, Pimentel remained at Lyons, strictly pre- 
serving his incognito and seeing no one, except Mazarin. 
The Duke of Savoy, although unaware of the arrival 
of the Spanish envoy, became convinced that the 
Cardinal was merely using his sister as a pawn in his 
political game, and his dissatisfaction being increased 
by the failure of his own matrimonial negotiations and 
a trivial dispute with Monsieur over a question of pre- 
cedence, 1 took his departure in anger, exclaiming, if 

1 " He (the Duke of Savoy) behaved to the King with great respect ; 
but as, since the Regency, the Duke of Savoy, his father, had obtained 
the favour of his Ambassadors being received as those of crowned heads, 
this advantage, which he held only under the kindness of the King and 
the facility of the Minister, caused him to have the audacity to refuse to 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 93 

we are to believe Mademoiselle : " Adieu, France, and 
for ever. I quit thee without regret." 

The Duchess of Savoy, less clear-sighted than her 
son, and, besides, much more eager for the match, 
refused to abandon hope ; and the Cardinal, consum- 
mate diplomatist though he was, found the situation 
distinctly embarrassing, since he was unwilling to break 
off definitely all negotiations with Savoy until he had 
satisfied himself that no serious hitch was likely to arise 
in those which he had to conduct with Spain. Finally, 
however, the Duchess learned of the arrival of Pimentel, 
and, in a great state of agitation, sought out the 
Cardinal and peremptorily demanded a positive answer. 
Mazarin, perceiving it useless to dissemble further, then 
informed her of the proposals which had been received 
from Philip IV, adding that it was the imperative duty 
of his young master to take this the only means of 
giving peace to Europe and terminating a war which 
had already lasted for more than twenty years, and the 
prolongation of which could serve no useful purpose. 

Madame Royale became " pale as death," and " con- 
sidered whether she should swoon away," but, by a 
great effort, recovered her composure, and replied, with 
dignity, that she fully comprehended the exigencies of 
the political situation, and the advantages which France 
would derive from the marriage of Louis XIV with the 
Infanta, but that she demanded at least some guarantees 
for the Princess Margherita, in the event of anything 
arising to prevent the King from espousing Maria 
Theresa. 

visit Monsieur, because he did not give him his right hand. The differ- 
ence was in reality so great between them, that the late Duke, his father, 
never covered his head in Madame Royale's presence, and in all things, 
notwithstanding his position as husband, he showed her the greatest 
respect." — " Memoires de Madame de Motteville." 



94 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

But if the Duchess succeeded in restraining her feel- 
ings in the presence of the Cardinal, she gave full vent 
to her chagrin and indignation before Mademoiselle, who, 
calling upon her later in the day, found her "greatly- 
changed," and saw that she had been weeping bitterly. 
Evening, however, came, and, with it, the Cardinal, 
bringing a paper signed by the King's own hand, 
" wherein he undertook to espouse the Princess of 
Savoy, if within a year from that date his marriage 
with the Infanta had not been concluded." 1 To this 
document Mazarin, " who was somewhat conscience- 
stricken," added a handsome present: a pair of fine 
diamond earrings, a number of other trinkets, and a 
quantity of perfumes and fans ; at sight of which, the 
disconsolate Duchess straightway dried her tears and 
hurried off to show her earrings to the Queen. " She 
talked of nothing else, and every one admired the happy 
change from tears in the morning to gaiety in the even- 
ing." As for the Princess Margherita, the innocent 
victim of all these intrigues, no change was observable in 
her. " She always preserved an admirable tranquillity, 
and acted in the matter as if it had concerned another." 2 

The Duchess of Savoy and her daughters took "their 
departure a few days later, their Majesties accompanying 
them a little way on their homeward journey. " Madame 
Royale wept ; her eldest daughter a little. As for the 
Princess Margherita, she only shed a few tears, which 
appeared to be rather those of anger than of tender- 
ness." 3 

On returning to Lyons, the Queen declared herself 
much relieved at having got rid of " all those people," 
and made sport of the Duchess for having wept, observ- 

1 " Memoires de Montglat." 

2 " Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier." 3 Ibid. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 95 

ing that she was "the most consummate actress she 
had ever seen." She said nothing against the Princess 
Margherita, " for she admired her conduct and the 
firmness and strength of mind with which she had borne 
all that had happened." This poor princess, after losing 
the most splendid crown in the world, was reduced to 
marrying a petty Italian prince, the Duke of Parma. 
She died in 1663, the same year as her mother, the 
Duchess Christine. 

A few days after the departure of the Princesses of 
Savoy, news arrived that the Queen of Spain had given 
birth to another son, and Philip IV wrote a very 
affectionate letter to his sister to announce this happy 
event, which confirmed her hopes for peace and the 
marriage of Louis with the Infanta. 

The Court remained at Lyons until the end of the 
following January. Marie Mancini was ill for some 
days, during which the King visited her constantly. 
We may surmise that her illness was not wholly uncon- 
nected with the events which were passing around her. 
She had abandoned herself unreservedly to her passion 
for the King, to the intoxication of a reciprocated attach- 
ment, doubly sweet to one whose life up to that time 
had been so sad and lonely, without troubling herself to 
reflect what must be the ultimate issue of a sentiment 
of this nature between two persons of such very different 
stations. She had, in fact, thought only of the present 
and closed her eyes to the future. The arrival of the 
Princess Margherita, and the favourable impression 
which she was reported to have made upon the King, 
had abruptly opened them, and aroused her to a full 
comprehension of the danger which threatened her. Her 
passionate and violent nature awoke, and, with it, the 



96 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

pride and ambition which were the dominant traits in 
her character. The thought of being supplanted, even 
nominally, in the heart of the man she loved by another 
woman was intolerable to her ; the thought of being 
deposed from the place which she had come to look upon 
as rightfully hers was even more bitter. Overestimating 
the extent of her influence over Louis, she flattered 
herself that, even if circumstances had not come to her 
aid, she would still have experienced little difficulty in 
weaning the King from any desire he might have had to 
wed the Princess Margherita ; and, though she could 
not disguise from herself that in the Infanta, or rather in 
the great interests which the Infanta represented, she had 
a far more formidable foe to contend with, she was in 
no way dismayed. Nor did she intend to rest content 
with a defensive attitude ; she herself was resolved to 
enter the lists as a candidate for this dazzling prize. 
Too proud and too shrewd to become the mistress of 
the King, she foresaw that the young sovereign's passion 
could ere long be goaded to the point of marriage ; 
and, that resolution once taken, she firmly believed 
that neither the opposition of the Queen and the 
Cardinal, nor the duty he owed his realm, would be 
able to turn him from his purpose. 

On her recovery from her illness, Marie, " charmed 
with the King's fidelity and the power she had over him, 
resumed her usual post, which was always near him, 
talking with him and following him wherever it was 
possible, and the satisfaction she felt in believing herself 
beloved made her love still more him whom she 
already loved too much." 1 

1 "Memoires de Madame de Motteville." Madame de Motteville had 
not accompanied the Court to Lyons, but she was kept well informed of 
all that was passing there by her friends' letters. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 97 

Louis XIV certainly gave the young lady ample 
excuse for her conduct. He scarcely quitted her side. 
Every morning, he called upon her ; every evening, he 
invited her to share his collation ; then accompanied her 
to the Queen's, and when her Majesty had retired for 
the night, escorted her home. "At first he followed 
her coach, next he acted as coachman, and finally he 
took a seat inside." He was lodged, as were Marie 
and her sisters, in the Place Bellecour ; and on moon- 
light nights the two young people often promenaded in 
the Place until a very late hour. If his Majesty went 
to the play, he invariably took Marie with him and 
installed her by his side at one end of the tribune 
reserved for him ; the other being usually occupied by 
Monsieur and Mademoiselle. 

All these attentions naturally made a great stir ; 
nothing else was talked of, either by the Court or the 
public, but the King's passion for the Cardinal's niece. 
His Eminence, though frequently confined to his house 
by the gout, was, of course, perfectly well aware of 
all that was happening. Still, he made no attempt to 
interfere. So far the King's attachment had served a 
useful purpose in preserving Louis from the wiles of 
ambitious beauties, who might have endeavoured to 
undermine his own influence, and, in particular, in 
detaching him from all thought of marriage with the 
Princess of Savoy ; and as yet he could not bring him- 
self to believe that his young master could be so regard- 
less of his own dignity, and so indifferent to the 
interests of his kingdom, as to desire to carry the affair 
to its legitimate conclusion. 

That he might be tempted to carry it to its illegiti- 
mate one was in the Cardinal's opinion far more 
probable ; the moonlight promenades in the Place 



98 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Bellecour had occasioned him no little uneasiness ; and 
he accordingly enjoined upon Madame de Venel, the 
gouvernante of Marie and her sisters, to keep the strictest 
watch over her charges. The young ladies slept upon 
the ground-floor, and the windows of their chamber, 
which opened on to the Place, were so low as to afford 
an easy means of access to any one who desired to enter. 
The gouvernante promised implicit obedience, and kept 
her word, the result being an amusing incident. 

"Madame de Venel," writes Hortense, "was so 
accustomed to her profession of guardian (or rather of 
spy), even at night, that she rose in her sleep to see 
what we were doing. One night, as my sister Marie lay 
asleep, with her mouth open, Madame de Venel, coming, 
all asleep as she was, to grope in the dark, happened to 
thrust her finger into her mouth so far, that my sister, 
starting out of her sleep, made her teeth meet in the 
lady's finger. Picture to yourselves the amazement that 
they were both in, when they were thoroughly awake, 
to find themselves in this position. My sister was 
extremely angry at this inquisition. Next day, the 
story was related to the King, and all the Court laughed 
over it." l 

The Court left Lyons at the end of January 1659. 
The weather was bitterly cold, notwithstanding which 
Louis XIV announced his intention of making the 
greater part of the journey on horseback. Mademoiselle 
and most of the elder ladies preferred the warmth and 
shelter of their coaches, but several of the younger 
readily agreed to accompany his Majesty and his suite, 
this mode of travel providing excellent opportunities 
for flirtation. Among these, it is hardly necessary to 
observe, was Marie Mancini, who, attired in a velvet 
1 " Memoires de la Duchesse de Mazarin." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 99 

justaucorps trimmed with fur and a black velvet cap 
decorated with a plume, presented, we are assured, a 
particularly charming appearance, and had the honour of 
her sovereign's escort nearly the whole of the way, the 
rest of the equestrians being careful to keep at a respect- 
ful distance, so as not to embarrass the lovers. As 
the Cardinal and the jealous Comtesse de Soissons were 
making the return journey, as far as Nevers, by water, 
and Madame de Venel remained in her coach with 
Hortense, who was very susceptible to cold, there was 
no one to interfere with her enjoyment of the King's 
society, and she was in the highest spirits, while Louis 
shared her good humour. "The King," writes Mademoi- 
selle, "was in a much better humour since he had fallen 
in love with Mile, de Mancini ; he was gay, and talked to 
every one." 

Lore, 



CHAPTER VI 

Marie Mancini's confidences — Alarm of Anne of Austria and Mazarin 
at the King's passion for Marie — Louis XIV plays a practical joke 
on Madame de Venel — Visit of Don Juan of Austria to Paris — His 
jester and Marie Mancini — The "debauch of Roissy" — Philippe 
Mancini disgraced and imprisoned by the Cardinal — Pimentel in Paris 
— Astonishment of the Spanish envoy at the King's attentions to 
Marie — Increasing alarm of the Cardinal and the Queen — Louis XIV 
demands the Cardinal's permission to marry his niece — Question of 
Mazarin's conduct in this matter considered — Painful scene between 
the King and Anne of Austria — The Cardinal determines to exile 
Marie — Despair of the King and firmness of Mazarin — Interview 
between Louis XIV and Marie — The pearls of Henrietta Maria — 
The King's grief — Departure of Marie and her sisters for La 
Rochelle. 

'"T" S HE Court was very gay that winter. "On our 
•*• return to Paris," writes Marie Mancini, "our 
only care was to amuse ourselves ; there was not a 
day, or, to speak more correctly, not a minute, which 
was not devoted to pleasure ; and I may say that never 
had time been spent as we spent it. His Majesty, 
wishing to ensure the continuance of our amusements, 
commanded all who formed our circle to amuse us in 
turn. There was nothing but a succession of enter- 
tainments and balls ; and although these frequently took 
place in country spots, there was, nevertheless, nothing 
more magnificent ; to be convinced of which, it will be 
enough to know that these entertainments were given 
by persons of the first quality, and that love, which is 
full of resource and inspires everything into which it 

100 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 101 

enters, arranged them with care. For, in a word, there 
was not a cavalier who did not take part in them. The 
Grand Master 1 put forth every effort to please my 
sister Hortense, the Marquis de Richelieu took the same 
care for Mile, de la Motte-Argencourt, 2 the Marquis 
d'Alluye for Mile, du Fouilloux, whom he subsequently 
married, in whom his Majesty and myself had the 
utmost confidence, and several others who had similar 
engagements, and of whom space forbids me to speak 
here. The gallant adventures which accompanied our 
entertainments and our promenades would demand a 
whole volume ; so I shall pass over them in silence, and 
content myself with recounting one, which will show 
with what delicacy the King loved, and that he lost no 
opportunity of giving me proof of it. It was, if my 
memory does not deceive me, at Bois-le-Vicomte, as I 
was walking very quickly under a row of trees, his 
Majesty wished to give me his hand, and mine, happen- 
ing to strike, although rather lightly, against the pommel 
of his sword, he drew it sharply from its scabbard and 
threw it far away. I know not how to describe the 
manner in which he performed this action ; there are no 
words to express it." 

Since his return from Lyons, indeed, the King's 
passion for Marie had increased in a positively alarming 
manner, and they were scarcely ever apart. " The King 
never came into the Queen's presence without Mile. 
Mancini," says Madame de Motteville. " She followed 
him everywhere and whispered in his ear, in the presence 
of even the Queen herself, undeterred by the respect 

1 The Grand Master of the Artillery, Armand de la Porte, Marquis 
de la Meilleraye, afterwards Due de Mazarin. 

2 Apparently, she means Mile, de la Motte-Houdancourt. Mile, de 
la Motte-Argencourt had been sent to a convent (see p. 65 supra.) 



102 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

and decorum which she owed her. . . . The King's attach- 
ment to the Cardinal's niece gave the Queen pain. She 
feared a result that would be unworthy of the King ; 
and she desired that the Infanta, bringing him a pure 
heart that was wholly his, might not find his heart 
already occupied by an affection in every way unworthy 
of him, through the boldness which she knew existed in 
the girl's disposition. At this moment, these intentions 
seemed to be in keeping with what he owed himself; 
but a passion, however feeble, when fed and sustained 
by another stronger and more violent, might change 
them ; and this was what the Queen feared. 

Mazarin, too, who, as we have seen, had not opposed 
the King's inclination so long as he believed it might 
serve his own ends, was becoming seriously alarmed ; 
for, even supposing that Louis had no serious inten- 
tions, such conduct was in the highest degree indiscreet 
on the part of a sovereign who proposed to contract an 
alliance with the proudest house in Europe, and might, 
if rumours of it were to reach Madrid, prove a formid- 
able hindrance to the progress of the negotiations with 
Spain. Both he and the Queen, accordingly, resolved 
to put an end to the affair as speedily as possible, and, 
in the meanwhile, took Madame de Venel into their confi- 
dence, and bade her keep the strictest watch over the 
movements of Mile. Marie. 

Madame de Venel promised obedience, and set about 
her congenial task with such good-will as to draw upon 
her the dislike of the King. " One day, when the King 
was distributing sweetmeats to the ladies of the Court, 
in boxes gallantly ornamented with different coloured 
ribbons, Madame de Venel received hers and opened it. 
But what was her terror to see emerge a dozen mice, a 
kind of animal of which, it was known, she entertained 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 103 

the greatest horror ! Her first impulse urged her to 
precipitately quit the company ; but, immediately calling 
to mind the promise which she had given the Queen 
never to let Mile, de Mancini out of her sight, she 
retraced her steps and re-entered the apartment. The 
King, who had just seated himself on a sofa with Mile, 
de Mancini, and was already felicitating himself on the 
success of his enterprise, astonished at seeing Madame 
de Venel return so soon, said to her : * What ! Have 
you recovered from your alarm already, Madame ? ' 
c No, Sire,' replied she, c it is because I have not re- 
covered from my alarm that, in order to regain my 
courage, I thought it necessary to keep close to the son 
of Mars.* And, with that, she seated herself on the sofa 
between them." * 

In the meantime, the negotiations with Spain were 
progressing steadily. Pimentel had arrived in Paris 
soon after the return of the Court from Lyons, and 
numerous interviews had taken place between him and 
Mazarin, in which the principal bases of the treaty had 
already been agreed upon. The advent of Pimentel had 
greatly perturbed Marie Mancini, who was still more 
alarmed when, in March 1659, Spain made a further 
step in advance, and Don Juan of Austria, natural son 
of Philip IV and the actress Calderona, came to visit 
the Queen on his way from Flanders to Madrid. Don 
Juan came incognito, notwithstanding which the Queen 
addressed him as " My nephew," and he was lodged at 
the Louvre. He gave himself very haughty airs, even 
in the presence of the King, and scarcely deigned to 
notice Monsieur and Mademoiselle, to their intense morti- 
fication. 

1 Manuscript " Memoire sur Madame de Venel," published by Lucien 
Perey, " Le Roman du Grand Roi." 



i<>4 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

According to the custom of the time, the Prince had 
with him a jester, a girl called Capitor, the fame of 
whose wit had preceded her. She arrived in Paris 
shortly after her master, dressed as a man, with closely- 
cropped hair, a hat, and a sword. " She was ugly and 
cross-eyed," says Mademoiselle ', " but had an infinitude 
of wit, and was a very pretty fool. The King took so 
great a fancy to her that she never quitted the Louvre. 
The Queen and Monsieur were greatly diverted by her, 
and 1 myself also." 

But, alas ! Senorita Capitor was continually talking 
of and praising the Infanta, a habit which did not at all 
tend to commend her to Marie Mancini, who conceived 
the greatest dislike to her, spoke of her as " the fool," 
and jeered at her. Capitor retaliated and let fall some 
biting jests at the young lady's expense, which duly 
reached the latter's ears, and so enraged her that she 
complained to the King, who gave orders that the girl 
should be sent away. The Queen, Monsieur, and 
Mademoiselle, and nearly all the ladies of the Court, 
made her presents, and many begged her to mention 
them to the Infanta. The King derided these last, and 
"the Queen perceived that Mile, de Mancini allowed no 
opportunity to slip of ruining in the mind of Louis XIV 
all those who, whether near or far, belonged to the 
Infanta." l 

Shortly after the departure of Don Juan, an incident 
occurred which, for a moment, diverted attention from 
Marie Mancini to her brother Philippe, and " obliged 
the Court to praise the Cardinal not only in his presence, 
but in all places." 

A party of gay young noblemen, amongst whom was 
Philippe Mancini, the Marquis de Manicamp, the 
1 " Memoires de Mile, de Montpensier." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 105 

Comte de Guiche, and Bussy-Rabutin, were invited by 
the Comte de Vivonne, First Gentleman of the Chamber, 
to spend Holy Week with him at his country-house at 
Roissy ; and, by a singular coincidence, the King's 
Almoner, the Abbe Le Camus, was also one of the 
guests. People were not slow in recounting the most 
unheard-of things in regard to the doings of this 
pleasure-party, so out of place during the Holy Days. 
"They were accused of having chosen the time with 
sacrilegious intent, the least of which was the eating of 
meat on Good Friday; they were even accused of 
having committed certain impieties, unworthy not 
only of Christians, but of men of sense." 1 It was said 
that they had eaten a sucking-pig, after causing it to be 
baptized by the Abbe Le Camus ; nor was it long 
before the sucking-pig became a man, whom they had 
killed and partially devoured. As a matter of fact, they 
had done nothing worse than play some harmless prac- 
tical joke on a notary who happened to be passing that 
way, and who was so little offended that he sub- 
sequently joined them at supper. Their real offence, 
however, lay in having composed a song in which 
various prominent members of the Court were some- 
what roughly handled. Very imprudently, a copy of 
this song was circulated, and eventually found its way 
into the hands of the Queen, and from hers to the 
Cardinal's, who, "to show that he did not intend to 
protect the crime, determined to punish all the accom- 
plices in the person of his nephew, whom he dismissed 
from the Court and his presence," and imprisoned in 
the citadel of Brissac. 

This action on the part of the Cardinal was the more 
unjust since, according to Bussy-Rabutin, who, as we 
1 " Memoires de Madame de Motteville." 



ro6 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

have mentioned, was one of the party, the luckless 
Mancini, seeing the turn events were taking at Roissy, 
had quitted the company soon after his arrival and shut 
himself up in his room, and on the morning of Good 
Friday had returned to Paris. But Mazarin, who 
heartily disliked his nephew, was delighted at the 
opportunity of proving that he did not favour his 
family. Moreover, the intimacy existing between the 
young man and the King did not at all commend itself 
to his Eminence, who suspected that, if occasion arose, 
Philippe might be employed as an intermediary between 
Louis XIV and Marie ; and the pretext for getting rid 
of him seemed too good to be lost. 

The negotiations with Spain continued to advance. 
Pimentel was again in Paris, occupying a suite of apart- 
ments at the Palais-Mazarin, and he and the Cardinal 
were constantly closeted together. 1 It was an open 
secret that everything hinged upon the marriage be- 
tween Louis XIV and the Infanta, for the concessions 
demanded by France were such as, in ordinary circum- 
stances, Philip IV would most certainly refuse, but 
might accord without loss of dignity to his son-in-law. 

For some time, Pimentel kept within the walls of the 
Palais-Mazarin, and did not show himself in public, a 
precaution which is somewhat difficult to account for, 
in view of the fact that all Paris was aware of his visit 
and its object. At length, however, the preliminary 
negotiations having been concluded, he accepted an 
invitation to attend a magnificent fete given by the 
Minister Lionne at his chateau at Berny. The King and 
Queen, the Cardinal, Marie Mancini, and nearly the 

1 As the Palais-Mazarin was not yet finished, the Cardinal still 
occupied his apartments at the Louvre. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 107 

whole of the Court were present, and the entertainment 
was worthy of the illustrious guests. There was a 
concert, a play, and a splendid supper, followed by 
a display of fireworks on the canal, and the festivities 
terminated with a ball. His Majesty complimented his 
host warmly on the entertainment he had provided, 
declared that he had never visited a country-house which 
he had admired more, nor enjoyed himself so much in a 
single day. The latter statement was probably true 
enough, seeing that, undeterred by the presence of 
Pimentel, he did not quit Mile. Mancini's side for a 
moment, to the intense astonishment of the Spanish 
envoy, who, although he had heard rumours of the 
King's infatuation, had not yet had an opportunity of 
seeing the lovers together. So scandalized was he at 
such conduct on the part of a monarch who aspired to 
the hand of his master's daughter, that on the morrow 
he could not refrain from unbosoming himself to 
Mazarin. 

The Cardinal was now thoroughly alarmed. The 
remonstrances which he had addressed to his niece, and 
the hints he had from time to time thrown out in the 
presence of his young sovereign, had fallen on barren 
ground ; and it appeared to him that the King had 
deliberately chosen the fete at Berny to flaunt his 
passion in the face of the whole world. 

The Queen, on her side, was no less disquieted ; she 
could no longer conceal from herself the extraordinary 
influence which this young girl exercised over her im- 
pressionable son. Very submissive hitherto to his 
mother's wishes, Louis seemed now to trouble himself 
very little about them, and, in certain circumstances, 
did not fear even to brave them openly. A recent 
incident had shown her this but too plainly. 



108 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

During the Carnival, a very gorgeous ballet had been 
performed at the Court, in which Marie Mancini had 
particularly distinguished herself, and, as the reigning 
favourite, had of course been rewarded with loud 
applause. To please her, the King announced that the 
ballet would be danced again during Lent. This de- 
cision was extremely repugnant to the Queen, who 
remonstrated with her son in the strongest terms, finally 
declaring that, if he kept to his intention, she would 
not only refuse to be present, but would go to spend 
Lent at Val-de-Grace. " Eh bien ! You can go," re- 
torted the King brusquely. Then Marie, delighted to 
find that she had only to express a wish for it to be 
obeyed, herself begged the King to do as her Majesty 
desired, a request with which Louis at once complied. 

It had been decided that the final negotiations with 
Spain should take place at Saint-Jean-de-Luz, where 
Mazarin and Don Louis de Haro, the Spanish Prime 
Minister, were to confer together and draw up the terms 
of the definitive treaty ; and the Cardinal pointed out 
that it was imperative that the King and Queen should 
follow him to Bayonne, in order to be at hand in the 
event of any serious difficulty arising. Anne of Austria, 
therefore, implored her son to give her his solemn 
assurance that he would raise no opposition to the 
projected marriage with the Infanta ; to which Louis 
replied, coldly and evasively, that he had no intention 
of opposing it, but that there was time enough to 
consider it, as the conditions of the treaty had not yet 
been decided on by either side. 

The King did not fail to render an account of what 
had passed between his mother and himself to Marie, 
vowing that nothing should induce him to consent to 
the match, and that he would wed no one but her ; 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 109 

while the girl, on her side, left no means untried to 
confirm him in this resolution, and to prejudice his 
mind against the Cardinal and the Queen. "The 
opposition of the Cardinal," says Madame de la 
Fayette, whose recital is confirmed by all contemporary 
" Memoires " and by numerous unpublished documents, 
" only served to embitter her against him and to cause 
her to render him all kinds of ill turns. She did not 
do the Queen any less injury in the mind of the King, 
both* by condemning her conduct during the Regency, 
and by informing him of all that malice had invented 
against her. Finally, she succeeded in making herself 
so absolutely mistress of his mind, that, during the 
time that the preliminary negotiations in regard to the 
peace and the marriage were in progress, he demanded 
of the Cardinal permission to espouse her." * 

Some historians maintain that Mazarin was for a 
moment allured by the prospect of seeing his niece 
Queen of France, and that, had it not been for the 
strenuous opposition of Anne of Austria, he would 
have allowed Louis XIV to have his way. This con- 
tention appears to rest principally on a supposed 
conversation between the Cardinal and the Queen, 
which is related by Madame de Motteville in her 
" Memoires." " The aversion which the Queen enter- 
tained for Mile, de Mancini," she says, "was greatly 
increased by a speech which her uncle made to her. He 
was the slave of ambition and capable of ingratitude, 
and had an innate desire to prefer his own interests to 
those of every one else. His niece, intoxicated by her 
passion and persuaded of the power of her own charms, 
had the presumption to imagine that the King loved 
her enough to do all things for her ; and accordingly 
1 " Histoire de Madame Henriette d'Angleterre." 



no FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

she let her uncle know that on the terms on which she 
stood with the King, it was not impossible that she 
might become Queen, provided he would contribute 
his influence to further her ambition. The Cardinal 
could not refuse himself so fine an adventure, and he 
one day spoke of it to the Queen, laughing at the folly 
of his niece, but in a manner so ambiguous and em- 
barrassed that he allowed her to see clearly enough 
what he had in his mind to cause her to reply in these 
words : * I do not believe, Monsieur le Cardinal, that 
the King could be capable of such baseness ; but, if 
it were possible that he should think of it, I warn you 
that all France will revolt against you and him, and that 
I will put myself at the head of the rebels and induce 
my second son [Philippe, Due d'Anjou] to join them.' " 
M. Chantelauze pronounces without hesitation for the 
authenticity of this conversation. He pretends that 
Madame de Motteville's evidence is " above suspicion," 
that it is " irrefutable," because " no one had more know- 
ledge of the private affairs of the Queen." l On the 
other hand, the best-informed biographers of both 
Mazarin and Marie Mancini, such as M. Cheruel, 
M. Amedee Renee, M. Charles Li vet, Lucien Perey, 
and Mr. J. B. Perkins, are unanimous in discrediting it. 
They point out that, in the first place, the writer, who 
was a bitter enemy of Mazarin, does not venture to 
assert that she had her information from the Queen's 
own lips. In the second, that the Cardinal was at this 
time, as Madame de Motteville herself admits, a few 
pages further on in her " Memoires," absolute master 
of the Queen's mind, 2 and it is, therefore, in the highest 

1 " Louis XIV et Marie Mancini." 

2 "The Cardinal exercised so absolute an empire over the Queen's 
mind that she did not dare to do anything without his advice, and that he 
did not allow her to dispose of a simple benefice." 




From an engraving after the painting by Sir Peter Lely 
MARIE MANCINI 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS in 

degree improbable that she would have addressed him 
in such terms. And, finally, that the surer record of 
Mazarin's letters, and his conduct throughout the affair, 
show that he had always resolutely opposed a step which 
would not only have been fraught with disaster to 
France, but would have been fatal to his own interests. 
" Mazarin," says Mr. Perkins, " had nothing to gain by 
it and much to lose. He would become the uncle of a 
queen, instead of the successor of Richelieu. To have 
his niece the Queen of France might, under some cir- 
cumstances, have gratified his vanity, but the negotia- 
tions for the Spanish alliance had been practically 
arranged when the passion of Louis XIV reached its 
height. The Cardinal would have sacrificed the treaty 
which he believed would help to ensure him permanent 
fame ; he would have incurred the enmity of the nation 
for the continuance of the war ; the enmity of the 
Queen for interfering with her favourite scheme, and 
the enmity of Louis so soon as his passion had abated, 
and he realised that the greatest prince in the world had 
made a misalliance. Had Marie been able to control 
the King's policy, it would not have advanced the 
interests of Mazarin. He already possessed to the 
fullest extent the affection and confidence of Louis XIV, 
and he had little hold on his niece, who was impatient, 
ungovernable, and wasted very little love on her 
uncle." 1 

The Queen, learning from the Cardinal of the un- 
heard of step which her son had just taken, sum- 
moned him to her cabinet, when she employed every 
argument she could think of to divert him from his 
purpose, appealing in turn to his sense of duty, his 
1 " France under Richelieu and Mazarin." 



ii2 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

honour, and his delicacy. All was in vain. "The 
young King was no longer his own master ; he belonged 
to those black eyes which looked into his own from his 
lever to his coucher, at table, in the drive, at play, 
and in the dance, in every nook and corner of the 
Louvre ; to those burning eyes which accompanied the 
murmurs and cries of a tragic and passionate voice." 1 
His reply to his mother's entreaties was to fly into a 
violent passion, and vow that no one save Mile. 
Mancini should share his throne. He left the Queen 
plunged in the depths of despair, already perhaps seeing 
in imagination her idolised son the byword of Europe, 
the Cardinal's schemes ruined, France and Spain once 
more at one another's throats, and she herself, like her 
mother-in-law Marie de' Medici, condemned to wander 
in exile and die miserably in a foreign land. 

Meanwhile, Mazarin had had an interview with his 
niece, with equally fruitless results. The girl obstinately 
declined to renounce her love and her ambition, nor 
could he obtain from her the smallest concession. As 
he was on the point of starting for the Pyrenees to meet 
the Spanish plenipotentiaries, and recognised the im- 
prudence of leaving Marie behind him to labour for an 
end totally opposed to his own, he at once resolved to 
remove her out of the reach of the infatuated King, and 
accordingly informed the young lady that it was his 
intention to send her and her sisters, Hortense and 
Marianne, in charge of Madame de Venel, to La 
Rochelle. 

Marie does not appear to have been greatly distressed 
at this announcement, since she could not bring herself 
to believe that the King would permit the Cardinal to 
carry out his resolve ; while, when Mazarin requested 

1 Arvede Barine, " Princesses et grandes dames : Marie Mancini." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 113 

the Queen to break the news to her son, Anne declined 
and implored him not to separate the lovers, as she 
feared that, in his first indignation at learning of the 
forthcoming exile of his mistress, Louis might create 
some scandal which would put an end to the negotia- 
tions for his marriage with the Infanta. 

Mazarin, however, was adamant, and, as the Queen 
refused to act as his ambassador, he ordered his niece to 
acquaint Louis XIV with his decision. The announce- 
ment threw the young monarch into the last excess of 
grief and indignation. He vowed that no power on 
earth should separate him from his beloved ; he 
threatened to publicly disgrace the Cardinal, and for 
three whole days he did not address so much as a word 
to his mother. Finding the Minister inflexible, he 
suddenly changed his tone, threw himself at the feet of 
the Queen and the Cardinal, and besought them on his 
knees to grant the dearest wish of his heart. " I will 
marry Mile, de Mancini," said he ; " I will break with 
the Infanta ; I will do anything rather than see her 
suffer for love of me." 

The Cardinal replied, that " having been chosen by 
the late King, his father, and since by the Queen, to 
assist them with his counsels, and having hitherto 
served them with inviolable fidelity, he was resolved not 
to abuse the confidence reposed in him by suffering him 
to commit an act so contrary to his reputation ; that he 
was master of his niece, and would stab her to the heart 
rather than elevate her by so great an act of treason." 1 

Such was the King's grief, that Anne of Austria, in 
spite of the horror with which such a misalliance inspired 
her, could not refrain from begging the Cardinal not to 
insist on the exile of his niece. But Mazarin, remem- 

1 " Memoires de Madame de Motteville." 



ii 4 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

bering the vast interests at stake, was not to be diverted 
from his purpose, and all that Louis could obtain from 
him was a formal promise to grant him an interview 
with Marie during the forthcoming journey of the 
Court to Bayonne. 

On leaving the Queen and the Cardinal, Louis 
hastened to Marie Mancini's apartments, which were 
situated above his own, to acquaint her with the result 
of the interview. He did not conceal from her that he 
despaired of shaking her uncle's resolution, but sought 
to comfort her by the assurance that nothing should 
induce him to wed the Infanta or to abandon the hope 
of overcoming the opposition of his mother and 
Mazarin. 

Marie was but partially consoled by these promises. 
"Why," she asked, " if your Majesty is so determined, 
does he permit this order of exile to be executed ? 
Does he not see that, if I am once sent away, the 
Cardinal can easily send me further, perhaps even to 
Italy, according to his good pleasure, and separate us 
for ever?" 

The King endeavoured to reassure her, pointing out 
that the promise which Mazarin had given him that 
they should meet during the journey of the Court to 
the South was a proof that he had no such intention. 
To these assurances he added the most tender pro- 
testations, nor did he leave her until he had succeeded, as 
he imagined, in somewhat allaying her fears. 

Left to herself, the unhappy Marie gave full vent to 
the despair which she had with difficulty restrained 
during the visit of the King; the blind confidence 
which she had hitherto reposed in him was beginning 
to waver. " This would be," she writes, " the place 
to speak of the intentions which his Majesty is said to 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 115 

have had in my favour, did not modesty forbid me, and, 
for the same reason, I shall not enlarge upon the 
obvious displeasure which the prince felt at witnessing 
my departure. But I cannot keep silence in regard to 
the grief which this separation occasioned me ; nothing 
in my life affected me so sensibly ; all that one is able 
to suffer appeared to me as nothing in comparison with 
this absence ; there was not a moment when I did not 
desire death as the only remedy for my woes. Briefly, 
I was in a condition which neither what I have just said 
nor the strongest expressions could possibly explain." 

During the few days' grace which Mazarin had 
allowed his niece, the King did not quit her side, seek- 
ing by every means in his power to prove to her that 
she alone occupied his thoughts ; and, undeterred by 
the remonstrances of the Queen and the Cardinal, lost 
no opportunity of proclaiming the passion and grief 
which the coming separation occasioned him. A chance 
of testifying to the lady and the whole Court that he 
was very far from abandoning the hope of seeing her 
one day Queen of France happened to present itself at 
this moment, and the infatuated youth hastened to take 
advantage of it. 

Henrietta Maria, the widowed Queen of Charles I, 
then residing at Saint-Germain, desired to sell a magnifi- 
cent string of pearls, in order to add to her meagre 
budget (the unfortunate princess subsisted entirely on 
Louis XIVs bounty, and had been compelled to part 
little by little with nearly all her jewels). Marie 
Mancini had greatly admired these pearls on the rare 
occasions on which the Queen had worn them at Court, 
and no sooner did Louis learn that they were for sale, 
than he gave orders for them to be purchased, to present 
to his inamorata. Marie tells us that she at first refused 



n6 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

to accept them, sorrowfully pointing out that henceforth 
she would have no opportunity of wearing them. " But 
his Majesty insisted in a manner so pressing, and ac- 
companied his request with words so full of promise," 
that eventually she allowed herself to be persuaded. 

For the money required for the purchase of these 
pearls — 78,000 livres — Louis, who never possessed a 
sol of his own, had to apply to Mazarin, who, we may 
presume, gave orders for its payment with a very bad 
grace, though somewhat consoled by the reflection that 
the jewels would remain in his family. He was still 
less pleased when his Majesty demanded a further sum 
of one thousand pistoles, without informing him of the 
object for which it was required. The Cardinal sus- 
pected, and with good reason, that the money was 
intended for the payment of certain secret agents, in 
the event of his placing any obstacles in the way of the 
King corresponding with his niece. However, he was 
unable to refuse the money. 

Three days before the departure of Marie and her 
sisters for La Rochelle, Mazarin left for Vincennes, 
perhaps to be out of the way when the final leave- 
takings should take place ; and the King took advantage 
of his absence to seek an interview with his mother, 
who, he flattered himself, might prove more amenable 
to reason, with the Cardinal no longer at hand to 
support her. In this, however, he was mistaken. 

" The evening preceding the day of Mile, de Man- 
cini's departure," says Madame de Motteville, "the King 
came to the Queen in a state of profound depression. 
She drew him aside and spoke to him for a long time ; 
but, as the sensibility of the heart which loves demands 
solitude, the Queen herself took a light which stood on 
her table, and, passing from her chamber into her bath- 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 117 

room, requested the King to follow her. After they 
had been about an hour together, the King came out 
with swollen eyes, and the Queen followed him, so 
touched by the state in which she was obliged to place 
him, that it was easy to see that the King's suffering 
cost her much. At that moment, she did me the 
honour to say to me, in a low tone : * I pity the King ; 
he is both loving and reasonable ; but I have just told 
him that I am certain that he will one day thank me for 
the pain I have caused him ; and, from what I see in 
him, I do not doubt it.'" 

During this interview, Louis had used every per- 
suasion to gain his mother over to his side, but without 
success. He had, however, obtained a renewal of the 
promise to permit him to see Marie again during the 
journey to the South ; while, before leaving for Vin- 
cennes, the Cardinal, perceiving the state of exasperation 
into which the coming separation from his mistress had 
thrown his young sovereign, and judging it to be the 
wisest course to humour him so far as possible, had 
consented to a regular correspondence being established 
between the lovers. 

From the Queen's apartments, Louis passed to those 
of Marie, to mingle his tears with hers, and to renew 
the vows which he had already made so many times. 
Hortense Mancini was the only witness of this inter- 
view, which lasted until a late hour, when the King 
returned to his own apartments, " mournful, silent, and 
without speaking to any one." 

The following morning, 22 June 1659, he again 
repaired to Marie's apartments, and did not leave her 
till the hour fixed for her departure, when he conducted 
her to her coach, " allowing his grief to be perceived by 
every one." It was then that Marie Mancini addressed 



u8 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

to her royal lover those well-known words so full of 
tenderness and of reproach : " Sire, vous ites roi y vous 
pleurez, et je pars J " 

The King leant towards her and murmured some 
words in her ear which were inaudible to those standing 
by. Whatever they were, they do not appear to have 
aiforded the poor girl much consolation, for she threw 
herself back in the coach, and, sobbing bitterly, mur- 
mured to Hortense : " Ah ! I am abandoned ! " 

The coach drove away, and Louis XIV, having taken 
a hurried leave of his mother, entered his own and set 
off for Chantilly, where he remained for some days, 
" in order to recover his equanimity." 



CHAPTER VII 

Departure of Mazarin for the Pyrenees — Illness of Marie Mancini — 
Angry scene between Louis XIV and Anne of Austria — The King 
writes every day to Marie — Uneasiness of the Cardinal — His letter 
to the King from Poitiers — Arrival of Marie and her sisters at La 
Rochelle — Marie promises to submit to her uncle's orders — But has 
no such intention — Letter of Mazarin to Louis XIV from Montlieu 
— Violent scene between the King and the Queen-Mother — Letter of 
the Cardinal to Louis XIV from Libourne — Anxiety of Mazarin — 
His outspoken letter to the King from Cadillac — Evasive reply of his 
Majesty — Eloquent letter of Mazarin from Saint-Jean-de-Luz — His 
anxiety to prevent a meeting between the King and Marie during the 
journey of the Court to the South — His letter to the Queen — Madame 
de Venel ordered by Anne of Austria to bring the Cardinal's nieces to 
Saint-Jean-d'Angely. 

/^N 26 July, the King and Queen visited Mazarin at 
^"*^ Vincennes, for a final conference before his depar- 
ture for the Pyrenees, at the conclusion of which the 
Cardinal started for Notre-Dame-de-Clery, where he 
intended to rejoin his nieces and accompany them part 
of the way to La Rochelle. 

On his arrival, he found Marie in a high fever, the 
result of the violent emotion which she had lately 
undergone, and, for some days, the poor girl's condition 
was such as to cause her relatives no little uneasiness. 
The King, who had returned to his solitude at Chantilly, 
was in ignorance of the illness of his mistress, and was, 
in consequence, greatly surprised at receiving no reply 
to the long and tender letters which he daily despatched 
to her. At length, however, the Comte de Vivonne, 

119 



120 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

who, it had been arranged, was to act as intermediary in 
the event of Marie not being able to address herself 
direGtly to the King, received warning of the young 
lady's plight from one of her waiting-women, and com- 
municated the news to his Majesty. Louis at once 
started for Fontainebleau, where the Court then was, 
and despatched one of his Musketeers to Notre-Dame- 
de-Clery, charged with a letter for Mazarin, commanding 
him to treat his niece with every possible consideration 
and kindness, and to inform him immediately of her 
state of health, and a second for Marie, the contents of 
which we can well imagine. All the Court knew of the 
departure of the Musketeer, and the Queen, whom his 
Majesty had greeted on his arrival with icy coldness, 
ventured to inquire of her son what news he had of 
Mile. Mancini. Upon which the King " flew into a 
violent passion, crying out in a voice so loud that he 
could be heard by those in the adjoining apartment, that 
it was useless to ask news about those whom one 
intended to kill." 

To his Majesty's letter, the Cardinal replied that his 
niece " had had a little fever, through want of sleep, 
but that she was now in good health and covered with 
confusion at the honour which you have done her." 
" I love her as I should," he continues, " and I shall 
give her proof of it as I ought, in response to the 
affection which she shows for me, and her resignation 
to what I desire of her, which will always be very greatly 
to her advantage." To the Queen, Mazarin wrote with 
a good deal more candour : " Marie is more afflicted than 
I can express, but she shows herself entirely resigned to 
my wishes, and that she will never have any others." 

Other messengers, bearing letters from the lovelorn 
prince — " all very long and very tender," the lady tells 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 121 

us — continued to follow the Cardinal and his nieces on 
their journey southwards. At Chambord, a Musketeer 
overtook them with five letters for Marie, and another 
for Mazarin. An hour later, came yet another epistle, 
accompanied by a " speaking portrait " of his Majesty 
for Mile. Mancini, who was at no pains to conceal from 
her uncle the joy which the gift occasioned her. In 
short, the letters rained upon them day and night in a 
perfect deluge, to the intense annoyance of the Cardinal, 
who, in authorizing a correspondence between the King 
and his niece, had not bargained for anything of this 
nature, and began to fear that, in separating the lovers, 
he had only added fuel to the flame. 

Not only did the Cardinal find the letters too 
numerous, but the method chosen by the King of com- 
municating with his beloved, by means of special 
couriers, was very far from commending itself to him. 
In the first place, he was advised that it had become the 
universal topic of conversation at the Court, which 
meant that it must sooner or later reach Madrid. In 
the second, the system deprived him of all chance of 
surveillance, and prevented him from obtaining, through 
the good offices of his faithful ally, Madame de Venel, 
any knowledge of the contents of the bulky epistles he 
saw arriving. He, accordingly, begged his Majesty to 
abstain from direct communication with his niece, and 
to send his letters by the ordinary Court couriers, under 
cover to Colbert, to be forwarded by him to his relative 
Colbert de Terron, Governor of La Rochelle, who, like 
the future Comptroller-General, was believed to be 
devoted to his Eminence's interests. 

On reaching Poitiers, Mazarin parted from his nieces, 
the latter continuing their journey to La Rochelle, 
while the Cardinal took the road to Bayonne. Before 



122 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

quitting Poitiers, however, Mazarin wrote to the King 
as follows : — 

Mazarin to Louis XIV 

"... The confidante [the Queen] has written to 
inform me of the state in which she found you, and I 
am in despair, for it is absolutely necessary that you 
remedy it, if you do not wish to be unhappy, and to 
make all your faithful servants die of grief. The means 
which you employ are by no means calculated to cure 
you, and, unless you resolve in earnest to alter your 
conduct, your malady will grow worse and worse. I 
conjure you by your glory, by your honour, by your 
duty towards God, by the welfare of your kingdom, 
and by everything which is able to affect you, to labour 
strenuously to master yourself, and not to make the 
journey to Bayonne unwillingly; for, briefly, you will be 
guilty before God and before men if you go not thither 
with the purpose with which you ought to go, by reason, 
by honour, and by interest. I trust that the person you 
wot of (Marie Mancini) will contribute materially to 
that end, since I have spoken to her in the terms which 
were necessary to dispose her so to do." 1 

This urgent letter did not produce the smallest effect 
upon the King. He sent, as Mazarin had requested, 
letters by the ordinary couriers ; but this did not pre- 
vent him from despatching to Marie other messengers, 
bearing epistles not less voluminous than those entrusted 
to the couriers of the Court, and, " instead of making 

1 This and the other letters of Mazarin to Louis XIV, Anne of 
Austria, and Madame de Venel which r appear in this volume are in the 
Archives of the Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres and the Bibliotheque 
Nationale, and have been published, wholly or in part, in several works, 
notably by M. Chantelauze, in his " Louis XIV et Marie Mancini." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 123 

use of the remedies which might be able to moderate 
his passion, omitted nothing which might serve to 
augment it," 1 so that the poor Queen wrote to the 
Cardinal that she was in the last stage of anxiety as 
to the ultimate issue of the affair. As for Marie, 
the daily arrival of the welcome epistles from Fon- 
tainebleau had naturally revived the hopes that her 
uncle's determined action had temporarily crushed. 
" There are scarcely any misfortunes," she writes in her 
" Memoires," " which do not flatter themselves by some 
hope to mitigate their grief. I did not refuse this 
remedy to mine, when I saw that his Majesty thought 
of nothing but despatching couriers to me charged with 
five letters of several pages ; and, taking into considera- 
tion the fact that the peace was not yet concluded, and that 
there were great obstacles to overcome, I dared sometimes 
to promise myself that it would not be concluded." 

It is hardly necessary to observe that Marie's letters 
were not less numerous and voluminous than those of 
the King, and, inspired as they were by genuine de- 
votion, contributed to keep alive a passion of which 
the roots were too deep to be easily eradicated. It is 
unfortunate, indeed, that not even one of these letters 
has been preserved, for they must have been well worth 
reading. 

The faithful Madame de Venel did not fail to acquaint 
the Cardinal with the continuance of the correspondence. 
" Matters," she writes, " seem to me a little worse than 
they seemed to you, and it would perhaps be not with- 
out advantage to the service of your Eminence, if it 
were possible to examine the contents of the first 
packet despatched from La Rochelle." With character- 
istic discretion, the lady begs her employer not to make 
1 Mazarin to the Queen, July 1659. 



i2 4 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

any reply to this portion of her letter, and to burn it so 
soon as read. 

At the same time, Mazarin was receiving very dis- 
quieting reports from Fontainebleau in regard to the 
health of the King, whom his chief physician, Vallot, 
declared to be " suffering from fever and insomnia, and 
to be growing sensibly thinner." On the other hand, 
the Cardinal's dme damnee, Bartet, reported that Louis 
appeared to be less incensed against his mother, and that 
" it was hoped that the deplorable effects produced on 
his Majesty's mind as regards the Queen tended to 
diminish." 

The Cardinal's nieces and their gouvernante arrived at 
La Rochelle on 1 1 July, and were received as though 
they had been Princesses of the Blood ; cannon fired 
salutes, the municipal authorities waited upon them to 
pay their respects, and at night the town was illumin- 
ated. A day or two after their arrival, Marie wrote 
to her uncle a letter, in which she did not attempt to 
conceal her weakness, but promised submission to his 
wishes. " I have seen, by what you have written and 
by what Madame de Venel has received, your orders 
to me to subordinate my feelings to yours ; that will 
not be an easy matter. I recognise always more fully 
my weakness, notwithstanding which, I have no other 
desire than to do all my life all what you may command 
me, and what I shall see is likely to please you. It will 
not be accomplished without great difficulty, for the 
thought causes me furious suffering." 

This letter was quickly followed by another, in which 
she promises to cease writing to " the person he wots 
of (the King), if such were his desire," and concludes 
by declaring that she is " resolved to obey him and to 
keep all her life the quality of his humble servant." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 125 

These assurances appear to have been intended to 
throw the Cardinal off his guard. The King had not 
failed to recommend his inamorata to take measures to 
secure the good-will of all those about her who might 
prove of service to her, " even engaging her to promise 
them in his name whatsoever she might judge necessary 
to gain them over to their cause " ; and, while the 
young lady was assuring her uncle of her desire to 
obey him in all things, she was busily employed in 
executing his Majesty's instructions. Thus a secret 
struggle was going on between the Cardinal and Marie; 
the one endeavouring to make himself acquainted with 
the contents of the lovers' correspondence, the other 
striving to evade the vigilance of the Argus-eyed spies 
placed around her by her uncle. 

Under date 12 July, we find the chief of these, 
Madame de Venel, informing the Cardinal that she 
"has experienced great difficulty in having Mademoi- 
selle's letter enclosed as his Eminence had instructed 
her." " She argues the matter warmly," the gouvernante 
continues, " and says that she cannot conceive why, 
when the letters can be sent direct, I cause them to be 
despatched by a circuitous route. However, she gave 
it to me, and I sent it to M. Colbert." 

But, if Marie consented to entrust some of her letters 
to the King to the care of the Cardinal's agents, his 
Eminence was not long in ascertaining that these were 
very far from being the only ones she despatched to 
Fontainebleau, and that nothing else was talked of at 
the Court but the arrival and departure of the mes- 
sengers of love. In great alarm, he wrote to the King, 
urging him in the strongest terms to put an end to the 
correspondence. 



126 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Mazarin to the King. 

" Montlieu, 12 July 1 659. 

" You will find enclosed a packet which has been 
addressed to me at a place near La Rochelle, and you 
will permit me to tell you, with the respect and sub- 
mission that I owe you, that, although 1 have always 
carried my complacency for what you have desired to 
the last extreme, when I perceived it possible to do so 
without prejudice to your service and glory, neverthe- 
less, my reputation is at stake, and also that of a person 
whom you honour with your kindness [Marie Mancini], 
and who will assuredly receive an irreparable injury, 
if you have not the goodness to break off the corre- 
spondence which you carry on with her with so much 
publicity. I conjure you to do so, and, although, being 
as you are the most just and the most reasonable of 
all men, 1 ought not to doubt that, from this motive 
alone, you will accord me this favour, I desire, notwith- 
standing, to receive it as the greatest recompense you 
are able to give me for the small services that I have had 
the happiness to render you ; and I venture also to say 
that you owe it, too, to yourself at the present juncture, 
when you are on the eve of undertaking a journey for 
an object which is not in accord with the aforesaid 
correspondence, which does you more injury than if the 
person in question were at the Court, and you were 
frequenting her society, as you did in Paris. 

" If you were aware of how people speak of it in the 
aforesaid place, and if you knew what was said about it 
at Fontainebleau and among the persons who accompany 
me, you would not be annoyed at my supplications, and 
you would not wait for them to give orders concern- 
ing it. 



Five fair sisters 127 

" I have also a number of advices which have reached 
me from Flanders, Germany, and other places, which 
speak of all this with a freedom which has astonished 
me. And, as I desire your credit more than anything 
which can concern myself, I am not able to refrain 
from acquainting you with all these particulars, in order 
that, being free to reflect upon them, you may be free to 
do that which I beg of you very humbly. I ask your 
pardon, if I press you in a matter which will not perhaps 
be at first to your liking, and to believe that I would 
willingly consent to give my life to have the happiness 
of never proposing to you anything but agreeable things 
which were consistent with decorum and your private 
reputation, which I assuredly desire more than life. 

" I beg you to confer with the confidante [the Queen] 
concerning this matter, and to believe me the most 
devoted of your servants." 

Louis XIV had hitherto received the Cardinal's letters 
without testifying any resentment. But it was other- 
wise with those which Mazarin addressed to the Queen, 
and which the latter had the imprudence to read to him. 
In one of these, the Cardinal indulged in some very 
plain speaking about his niece, whom he accused of 
openly boasting of the favour of the King, and added 
that she was altogether unworthy of the young sove- 
reign's affection. On hearing this, Louis quite lost his 
temper, and upbraided his mother in the most violent 
manner, accusing her of having embittered the Cardinal's 
mind against his niece, and vowing that he would never 
forgive her, since, previous to Marie's departure for 
La Rochelle, she had promised the contrary. Then he 
wrote to Mazarin in terms more measured, but very 
firm, informing him that he himself was the best judge 



128 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

of what persons were worthy of his affection, and stood 
in need of no lesson from him, although he was willing 
to believe that the Minister had spoken entirely in his 
(the King's) interest. 

To this letter, which caused him much uneasiness, 
the Cardinal replied at once and sought to excuse 
himself. 

Mazarin to the King. 

" Libourne, 14 July 1659. 

" Magalotti has delivered to me your letter of the 
first of this month, and I have been surprised at what 
you write me concerning the person [Marie] about 
whom I have written to the confidante [the Queen] ; 
for I well understand that you know her, and that you 
are incapable of bestowing your affection easily on 
persons undeserving of it. Moreover, I not only 
thought that possible, but I believed that they boasted 
about it, which is certainly the case ; and it was essential 
to your reputation that this report should not be 
circulated, and that every one should be deceived. 
Nevertheless, I am greatly beholden to you for the 
way in which you write to me regarding this matter, 
assuring you that I am touched as I ought to be by all 
the kindness that it pleases you to bestow on me. 

"The confidante [the Queen] informs me, by her letter 
of the 1 st, that she has not had reason to be satisfied 
with you on a certain occasion, and recalls what she 
wrote to me the preceding day. I have not yet re- 
ceived that letter, and I am suffering the greatest 
anxiety conceivable, not knowing what it contains, and 
being in despair at the slight which the confidante 
thinks she has received, although I cannot imagine that 
the matter is of importance. For, if such were the 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 129 

case, even though I might die on the way, I should 
take post to repair to the place where you are. But I 
do not understand how that can be, since you have not 
done me the honour to write to me about it. I shall 
pass an anxious time until I receive an explanation. 

" I send you a note, wherein I am instructing Colbert 
to pay to Blouin 1 one thousand pistoles, or eleven 
thousand livres. He will find this sum, and larger 
sums, should you require them ; and you must know 
once for all that, since I have nothing which is not 
yours, you may dispose of what belongs to me up to 
the last sol ; and you cannot do anything which could 
afford me greater pleasure." 

The Queen's delayed letter reached Mazarin, at Cadil- 
lac, on 16 July. It recounted the violent scene which 
her Majesty had had with Louis XIV, and threw the 
Cardinal into the last stage of anxiety. He replied 
immediately as follows : — 

Mazarin to the Queen. 

"Cadillac, 1 6 July 1659. 

" I have received, by the ordinary courier, your letter 
of the 9th, concerning which I wrote to you. I suffer 
much uneasiness, but its contents have given me still 
more, and to such a degree that I thought of setting out 
to return ; and I believe that I should have done so, had 
it not been for the scandal and the consequences that a 
resolution of such importance would have produced at 
the present juncture. 

" I fear to lose my reason, for I can neither eat nor 
sleep, and I am overwhelmed by grief and anxiety at a 
time when I am greatly in need of tranquillity." 

1 First valet-de-chambre to the King. 



1 3 o FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

The poor Cardinal did not exaggerate the condition 
into which the Queen's news had thrown him. His 
anxiety, indeed, brought on a violent attack of gout, 
complicated by gravel, which necessitated his remaining 
at Cadillac for some days longer, and the consequent 
postponement of the Conferences with the Spanish pleni- 
potentiaries, which were to have opened on 20 July. 

On the same day on which he wrote to the Queen, 
Mazarin also despatched a long and urgent letter to 
Louis XIV, which he entrusted to one of his own 
guards, with orders to travel at the utmost speed and to 
bring back the King's reply without the delay of a 
moment. Never did subject, never did Minister, ad- 
dress to his sovereign language more eloquent, more 
outspoken, or more courageous. 

Mazarin to the King, 

"Cadillac, 16 July 1 659. 

" . . . . Even if you had not commanded me so 
precisely as you have done to speak to you with all 
freedom, where your service was concerned, I should 
not fail to do so at this juncture, although I knew that 
it would be distasteful to you, and that I should run the 
risk of losing your good graces. 

" I have seen what the confidante [the Queen] has 
written me touching your displeasure and the way in 
which you have expressed it to her. But, since I know 
that her affection for you is proof against everything, 
and that your natural goodness, as well as your duty, 
gives you much uneasiness, so soon as you are aware 
of having displeased her, and that you return at once 
to testify to her the utmost tenderness, that will not 
occasion me much distress. But I confess to you that I 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 131 

am extremely grieved to learn, from the advices which 
are received from all quarters, of the manner in which 
people speak of you, at a time when you have done me 
the honour to announce to me that you were resolved to 
devote yourself with extraordinary application to affairs, 
and to set earnestly to work to become in all things the 
greatest king in the world. 

"Letters from Paris, Flanders, and elsewhere ad- 
vise me that you are no longer recognisable since my 
departure, and that not because of me, but on account of 
some one who belongs to me [Marie Mancini] ; that you 
have entered into engagements which will prevent you 
giving peace to all Christendom and rendering your 
State and your subjects happy by your marriage, and 
that if, to avoid so great a calamity, you pass on to 
make it, the person you espouse will be most miserable, 
and that through no fault of her own. 

" It is said (and that is confirmed by letters from the 
Court to persons in my suite) .... that you are always 
shut up to write to the person you love, and that you 
waste more time in that way than you did in conversing 
with her when she was at Court. It is further said that 
I approve of this and connive at it, in order to satisfy 
my ambition and hinder the peace. 

" It is said that you are at variance with the Queen, 
and even those who write in the mildest terms say that 
you avoid her as much as possible. 

" I find, moreover, that the consent I gave, at your 
earnest request, to an occasional interchange of news 
between yourself and this person has ended in a con- 
tinual commerce of long letters ; that, in fact, you write 
to her every day and receive a reply. And when cour- 
iers are wanting, the first who sets out is charged with 
as many letters as days have elapsed since you were able 



i 3 2 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

to despatch them, which cannot be without scandal, and 
I may say without some injury, to this person's reputa- 
tion and mine. 

"What is worse, is that I have recognised, by the 
answers which this person has made me when I have 
sincerely wished to advise her for her good, and by the 
advices that I have had from La Rochelle, that every day 
you omit nothing to entangle her more and more, assuring 
her that your intentions are to do things for her which 
ought not to be, and which no man of your station 
could wish to do, and which, in short, are, for several 
reasons, impossible. 

"... God has established kings (after matters which 
concern religion, for the maintenance whereof they 
ought to use every possible means) to watch over the 
welfare, security, and repose of their subjects, and not 
to sacrifice that welfare and repose to their private 
passions ; and when there have appeared persons so 
unhappy as to oblige, by their conduct, the divine 
Providence to abandon them, histories are full of the 
revolutions and miseries they have drawn upon their 
persons and States. 

" And, therefore, I solemnly warn you not to hesitate 
any longer, for though, in a certain sense, you are the 
master to do as you please, yet must you give account 
of your actions to God for the saving of your soul, and 
to the world for the saving of your credit and reputa- 
tion. ... If your subjects and State were so unhappy 
that you did not take the resolution which you ought, 
nothing in the world could prevent them from fall- 
ing into greater evils than they have yet suffered, 
and all Christendom with them. And I can assure you, 
from certain knowledge, that the Prince de Conde and 
many others are watching closely to see what will 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 133 

come of this matter, hoping, if things fall out in accord- 
ance with their wishes, to derive great advantage from 
the plausible pretext which you will give them, on 
account of which the said prince will have no doubt 
about securing the support of all the Parliaments, the 
great personages, and the nobility of the realm, nay, all 
your subjects generally ; and, moreover, will not fail to 
loudly proclaim that I have been the counsellor and the 
solicitor of all that you have done. 

" I am also obliged to tell you, with the same frank- 
ness, that, if you do not alter without any delay your 
conduct, and do not master the passion which at present 
dominates you, so that every one sees that not only 
will the projected marriage be accomplished, but that 
you do it willingly, and in the hope that it will prove 
happy, as well as the person you will espouse, it is im- 
possible that the aversion you entertain towards it, and 
the ill-treatment the Infanta is likely to receive, will not 
be known in Spain, since, on the eve of your marriage, 
you do nothing to prevent it being seen, in a thousand 
ways, that all your thoughts and affections are else- 
where. In which event, I hold it certain that they 
will take at Madrid the same resolutions which we 
ourselves should take in a like case to this. That is 
why I implore you to consider what blessing you can 
expect from God and men if, for this cause, we are com- 
pelled to recommence the most sanguinary war which 
has ever been seen, with as much prejudice as we have 
reaped advantages in the past, and as God has favoured 
your cause and the pious intentions which you and the 
Queen have always had. 

" I point all this out to you the more plainly, because 
Pimentel, during the journey, observed to me, on two or 
three occasions, that you were too much in love to wish 



134 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

to marry so soon, and that people had written to him 
the same thing from Flanders, in terms which occasioned 
him much uneasiness. 

" I conclude all this discourse by declaring to you 
that, if I find not, by the answer which I implore you 
to make me with all speed, that there is room for 
hope that you are taking, without reservation, the path 
that is necessary for your own welfare, for your honour, 
and for the preservation of your kingdom, I have no 
other course open to me, in order to give you this last 
mark of my fidelity and of my zeal for your service, 
than to sacrifice myself, and, after giving into your 
hands all the benefits with which it has pleased the late 
King, yourself, and the Queen to overwhelm me, to 
embark, with my family, to go and pass the remainder 
of my days in some corner of Italy, and to pray to God 
that this remedy which I shall have applied to your 
malady may bring about the cure which I desire above 
all things in the world, being able to say, without 
exaggeration and without using the terms of submission 
and respect I owe you, that there is no affection com- 
parable to that which I have for you, and that it 
would be impossible for me to prevent myself dying of 
grief, should I see you do anything which may blacken 
your reputation and expose your person and your State. 

" I believe you know me well enough to credit that 
what I write comes from the depths of my heart, and 
that nothing can prevent me from turning back and 
carrying out the resolution of which I have just spoken 
to you, if I see not, by the answer that you will make 
me and by your future conduct, that you have mastered 
the passion to which you are at present enslaved. . . ." 

While awaiting the King's answer, the unhappy 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 135 

Cardinal received several alarming letters from Madame 
de Venel, in one of which she informed him that a 
special courier had just arrived from his Majesty, with 
a letter for Mile. Mancini, after perusing which the 
young lady had informed her waiting-women that the 
King was coming to visit her on his way to Bayonne. 

Louis XIV's reply to the letter from Cadillac, together 
with two other letters, written respectively on the 16th 
and 20th inst., reached Mazarin at Saint-Jean-de-Luz, 
and occasioned him more uneasiness than ever. The 
young monarch skilfully avoided giving a categorical 
answer to the Minister's demand — that is to say, to break 
off his relations with Marie ; but he expressed his 
willingness to follow in all things the counsels of the 
Queen. The Queen, it would appear, alarmed by the 
change in her son's health and his unhappiness, no 
longer supported Mazarin as loyally as heretofore, and 
Louis had good hopes of ultimately bending her to his 
will. 

Here is the reply which the Cardinal made to the 
King's letters. 

Mazarin to the King. 

" Saint-Jean-de-Luz, 27 July 1659. 

" My pain giving me a short respite, I take up my 
pen to inform you that I am in receipt of your letters of 
the 1 6th, 20th, and 22nd of this month, among which is 
the reply that you have had the goodness to make me to 
the despatch which I wrote you from Cadillac. You do 
me the great honour to tell me that you are persuaded 
that I desire nothing but your credit and the welfare of 
your State, and that, in consequence, you are more than 
ever resolved to follow my counsels ; but, at the same 
time, you do the contrary. I begged you to write no 



136 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

more to La Rochelle, and you replied that that would be 
too hard for you, and that the confidante [the Queen] 
had approved your reasons ; so that I must conclude 
that I have influence over your mind, and that you have 
the goodness to follow my counsel, provided it happens 
to accord with your own wishes. 

"You only speak now about following those of the 
confidante, because, in some fashion, they are in accord 
with your own ; and, without entering into any further 
explanation in regard to my letter from Cadillac, you 
assure me beyond measure of your benevolence and of 
your desire to defer to my counsels, but without telling 
me anything definite of your wishes concerning the 
matters on which I have to negotiate with Don Luis 
[de Haro], You conclude by saying that you will not 
fail to follow the counsels of the confidante, and that 
you have no doubt that this will meet with my approval ; 
that is called, in good French, evading the question and 
giving change. You are the master of your conduct, 
but you cannot compel me to approve of it, when I 
know for certain that it is prejudicial to your honour, to 
the welfare of your State, and to the repose of your 
subjects. Finally, as I could not commit a greater crime 
in regard to you than to disguise from you matters of 
importance to your service, I declare to you that I can 
know neither repose nor contentment, if I do not see, 
by the results, that you are obtaining the mastery over 
yourself, for otherwise all is lost, and the only remedy 
which remains for me to employ is to withdraw and to 
take away with me the cause of the evils which we are 
on the eve of seeing arrive. 

" I have the ambition which an honest man ought to 
have, and perhaps, in certain things, I go too far. I love 
my niece dearly, but, without exaggeration, I love you 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 137 

still more ; and I am more interested in your credit and 
the preservation of your State than in anything in the 
world. Wherefore, I can only repeat what I did myself 
the honour to write to you from Cadillac, and, although, 
just at present, it is not agreeable to you, I am sure that 
you will one day love me well for it, and that you will 
have the kindness to confess that I have never rendered 
you a more important service than this one. The con- 
fidante loves you with the utmost tenderness, and it is 
impossible for her, as it is impossible for me, not to 
treat you with consideration. Although she is aware 
that your wishes are often not in accordance with 
reason, she does not interfere, because she is not proof 
against the sight of your suffering. For myself, I 
believe that I have for you the same affection as the 
confidante ; but this affection renders me only the more 
firm and resolute to oppose what is absolutely contrary 
to your reputation and service ; for, were I to do other- 
wise, I should be helping you to ruin yourself. 

" You take the trouble to tell me that you are ready 
to believe what I write concerning the things that are 
said about you and the correspondence you are carrying 
on with La Rochelle, but that neither you nor the con- 
fidante have heard any one speak about it. That no one 
should speak to you of it does not surprise me ; and, as 
for the confidante, she cannot know what I know ; but 
assuredly she is acquainted with many things which she 
does not tell you, from fear of displeasing you. 

"I greatly wish that M. de Turenne had had the 
courage to inform you of what is being said concerning 
this affair of yours, when you would have known that 
I state nothing on my own authority. To conclude, I 
answer you that all Europe argues about this passion of 
yours, and that every one speaks of it with a freedom 



138 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

which is very prejudicial to us. At Madrid, even, the 
affair has created a scandal, for they have not failed to 
write from Flanders and Paris, with intent to break off 
the negotiations for the projected alliance and prevent 
the execution of the peace. When I shall have the 
honour to see you, I will show you papers which will 
make you understand more about this matter than I 
have written to you. And, unless you remedy it with- 
out any delay, the affair will grow more serious every 
day, and will become incurable. 

" I ought further to complain of the great care you 
take to send to La Rochelle what I write to you. 
Consider, I beg of you, if that be courteous towards me 
or advantageous for you, and if that be the way to 
contribute towards the cure of the person to whom you 
write. . . ." 

This eloquent and persuasive letter produced no 
more effect upon Louis XIV than those which had 
preceded it. Madame de Venel reported from La 
Rochelle that special couriers continued to arrive from 
Fontainebleau, bringing not only letters from the King 
to his beloved, but also the letters which the Cardinal 
had written to his young master, in consequence of 
which, Marie was so exasperated against her uncle, that 
she refused even to write to him to felicitate him on 
his restoration to health. 

Soon a new subject of alarm presented itself to the 
anxious Minister. The Court was making preparations 
for its departure for Bayonne, and, as will be remem- 
bered, the King had obtained the formal permission of 
the Cardinal and the Queen to allow him to see Marie 
Mancini again on his way to the South. Mazarin was 
fully resolved to do everything possible to induce Louis 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 139 

XIV to renounce this project; but, in view of the Kings 
determination and the weakness of Anne of Austria, he 
was at a loss how to proceed. He foresaw that this 
interview would not only have the effect of fanning the 
flame of a passion which absence had been powerless to 
extinguish, but might create a scandal at the very open- 
ing of the Conferences. It was indeed, he thought, 
more than possible that the infatuated young King was 
actually counting upon it to bring about a rupture with 
Spain. The anxiety which this thought occasioned him 
aggravated his disease and brought on a serious relapse, 
so that for several days he was obliged to cease all 
correspondence. On his recovery, he wrote to the 
Queen, imploring her to prevent the meeting he had so 
much cause to dread at all costs. 

Mazarin to the Queen. 

" Saint-Jean-de-Luz, 29 July 1659. 

" I have been extremely mortified at not having been 
in a fit state to write to you for some days, since that is 
for me one of the greatest consolations that I can have, 
and particularly in the agitation of mind in which I am. 
I have read your four letters several times, and I cannot 
thank you enough for the continuation of your kind- 
ness, but for which I should pass a worse and a more 
unhappy life, seeing that I am separated from you and 
from the confidant [the King], and the latter does not 
do the things that I should wish, in order to oblige 
every one to regard him as the wisest of all kings, who 
prefers the grandeur and glory of his State to every 
other consideration and pleasure. I see plainly, by your 
letters and by those of the confidant, that your affection 
for him has not allowed you to continue firm ; but 



i 4 o FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

assuredly he will do himself some injury ; and, for my- 
self, I do not change my opinion, and I confirm to the 
confidant, in a letter which I am writing him, the same 
things which I wrote to him from Cadillac. You will 
see the letter, and it is impossible for you not to ap- 
prove of my reasons, if the compassion which you feel 
towards him, when you see him suffering, does not pre- 
vent you from so doing. 

"I complain to the confidant that he has written to 
La Rochelle all that I have written to him. I am 
assured of it, and he has treated me very ill in behaving 
in this way. 

"Marianne writes to me to complain of Hortense, 
and with reason, for she is always closeted with Marie, 
whose confidante she is, and both of them drive away 
Marianne, so that she can never remain with them. 1 I 
observe that Hortense is taking the same road as the 
other, and that she has less deference for Madame de 
Venel than her sister has. You may judge how much 
annoyance this occasions me ; but I promise you that, in 
one fashion or another, I shall put the matter right, 
whatever may happen. It is a great misfortune when 
one has reason to be dissatisfied with one's family. 

1 Marianne had written to her uncle : " I make use of another hand 
besides my own to let your Eminence know the miseries which my sisters 
inflict upon me, and, if he does not believe me, he can ascertain, through 
Madame de Venel, that I adhere strictly to the truth. For five or six 
days, they have not allowed me to enter their room, but have driven me 
out with the greatest fury imaginable. Marie is unwilling to suffer any 
one, save Hortense, near her. I beg your Eminence to find some remedy 
for this. I know not what to do, and Madame de Venel herself is very 
angry with them. I have nothing else to tell you this evening." 

The explanation of this state of affairs is that the worthy Madame de 
Venel had persuaded Marianne to spy upon her sisters ; to inform her 
whenever she saw Marie writing a letter, and even to listen at the key-hole 
to the conversations between her and Hortense, and that the little girl had 
been detected. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 141 

" Madame de Venel does all that she can, but they 
have little regard for her. I trust that the confidant 
[the King] will have the kindness to accord me the 
favour of not going to see them ; for assuredly that 
would be badly received, and the scandal would be a 
public one. But, should I be so unfortunate as to fail 
to obtain so reasonable a request, and your good offices 
be powerless to effect anything against the strength of 
his passion, I implore you, a mas no podo^ to make my 
nieces come with Madame de Venel to Angouleme, and 
to write her a letter in which you will order her to 
bring them to the same place, because you wish to see 
them as you pass through ; and after they have remained 
there a night, you will arrange for them to return. I 
beg you, in that case, to send a gentleman to carry 
your letter to Madame de Venel and accompany them ; 
but, in God's name, do everything possible to avert 
this blow, which, in whatever way it comes, cannot fail 
to have a very disastrous effect. . . ." 

The Queen either could not or would not attempt to 
prevent the dreaded interview ; but she wrote to Madame 
de Venel, directing her to bring her charges to Saint-Jean- 
d'Angely. The bearer of the letter, M. du Fouilloux, 
brother .of Marie's friend and a great favourite of the 
King, brought also a long letter from his Majesty to 
Mile. Mancini. His arrival and the news he brought 
caused that young lady the greatest joy, and threw poor 
Madame de Venel into the utmost consternation, for, 
having received no orders on the subject from the 
Cardinal, she knew not what to do. She at once des- 
patched a courier to his Eminence, to inform him of what 
had occurred and the impossibility, under the circum- 
stances, of refusing to obey the commands of the Queen. 



142 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Madame de Venel to Mazarin. 

" io August 1659. 

" Monseigneur, — The letter which I am sending to 
your Eminence will serve as my excuse. I am, with 
very sensible displeasure, compelled to set out without 
having had a word of advice from your Eminence 
regarding what I ought to do. . . . For the love of 
God, let your Eminence have the goodness to advise 
me what I should do, since I would prefer to die rather 
than have the unhappiness to displease your Eminence. 
M. du Fouilloux, who has brought the Queen's letter, 
has instructions to attend Mesdemoiselles to Saint-Jean. 
I shall not fail to send word to your Eminence of what 
happens there. 

" I am, etc. 

"P.S. — Mesdemoiselles will sleep to-morrow (Mon- 
day) at Surgeres, and Tuesday at Saint-Jean, where the 
Court will arrive on Wednesday." 



CHAPTER VIII 

Interview between Louis XIV and Marie Mancini at Saint-Jean- 
d'Angely — The King more enamoured than ever — Letter of Marie 
to her uncle — Angry letter of Mazarin to Madame de Venel — Alarm 
of Marie, who seeks to pacify the Cardinal — Marianne's verses — 
Continuation of the correspondence between the King and Marie — 
Remarkable letter of Mazarin to Louis XIV — Curt response of his 
Majesty — The King accuses Anne of Austria of embittering the 
Cardinal against his niece — Letters of Mazarin to the Queen-Mother 
and the King — Despair of Louis XIV at finding that all obstacles to 
his marriage with the Infanta have been surmounted — Marie Mancini 
breaks off all correspondence with the King — Letter in which she 
informs her uncle of her resolution — Joy of the Cardinal — His letters 
to Madame de Venel and his niece. 

'"lpHE Cardinal's nieces left La Rochelle on 1 1 Au- 
A gust and reached Saint-Jean-d'Angely the follow- 
ing day, where they awaited the Court, which did not 
arrive until the morning of the 13th. In his letter, 
the King had informed Marie that he intended to pre- 
cede the Queen and reach the town an hour before 
her. Such, however, was his impatience to behold once 
more the object of his adoration, that he arrived fully 
two hours earlier than he was expected. " He alighted 
immediately at our lodging," writes Hortense, "and, 
after the first salutations had been exchanged, he passed 
into the reception-room, where he conversed alone with 
Marie until the moment when they came to warn him 
of the arrival of the Queen. He then entered our 
coach and escorted us to the Queen, who received us 
with all the graciousness imaginable. Marianne was 

143 



i 4 4 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

so touched that she remained like one petrified, being 
unable to utter a word. Finally, she began weeping, 
which was very unlike her." 1 

The Princesse de Conti and the Comtesse de Soissons 
were with the Queen when the girls arrived. The latter 
had never forgiven her younger sister for having sup- 
planted her in the King's affections, and, with character- 
istic spitefulness, now endeavoured to do the lovers an 
ill turn, by inviting Marie to sup with her and vowing 
that she would take no refusal. But Marie was equal 
to the occasion, and replied that she would come with 
pleasure, if the King did not intend to do her the 
honour of visiting her. When the Queen sat down to 
the card-table — Anne of Austria divided her time 
between cards and devotional exercises — Louis XIV 
escorted the young ladies to their lodging, and remained 
with them until he was summoned to join his mother 
at supper. He returned immediately afterwards, and 
stayed until two o'clock in the morning. Hortense was 
present during a part of the time, and assures us that 
"nothing could equal the passion which the King 
showed and the tenderness with which he asked of 
Marie her pardon for all that she had suffered for his 
sake." He promised to do everything possible to 
obtain the Queen's consent for them to rejoin the 
Court at Bordeaux, and would have remained until an 
even later hour, had not Marie, fearing the malicious 
interpretations which the Comtesse de Soissons might 
put upon so long an interview, begged him to leave 
her. 

The following morning, Marie and her sisters re- 
paired again to the Queen's lodging, where the King 
was awaiting them. They accompanied her Majesty 
1 " Memoires de la Duchesse de Mazarin." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 145 

to Mass, at the conclusion of which the Queen took 
leave of them and continued her journey. Before she 
left, Marie, on Louis XIV's advice, begged her per- 
mission to rejoin the Court. Anne of Austria did not 
like to refuse openly ; but took refuge behind the Car- 
dinal, and replied that she would give it her willingly, 
providing his Eminence were agreeable. Marie knew 
well enough what his Eminence's answer was likely to 
be ; nevertheless, as the King had set his heart on her 
following the Court, she did not despair of being ulti- 
mately successful. 

Louis XIV remained at Saint-Jean-d'Angely for some 
hours after his mother's departure, the whole of which 
time was passed in earnest conversation with Marie, 
when it was agreed that the girl should use every 
endeavour to conciliate her uncle, since an apparent 
submission to his wishes seemed to be the only possible 
means of terminating her exile. Finally, " after some 
tears had been shed on both sides," the King succeeded 
in tearing himself away, and continued his journey to 
Bordeaux ; while Marie and her sisters returned to La 
Rochelle, M. du Fouilloux, by his Majesty's orders, 
again escorting them. 

The interview had revived all the girl's hopes. She 
had found the King more devoted than ever and more 
than ever resolved to brave both his mother and the 
Cardinal. He was perfectly aware of the difficulties 
which were certain to arise during the forthcoming 
negotiations, notably in regard to the Prince de Conde, 
whose demand to be restored to all his honours and 
dignities would certainly be supported by the King of 
Spain, and strenuously opposed by Mazarin. It was 
quite possible that this matter alone might prove an 
insurmountable obstacle to the conclusion of peace, in 



146 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

which eventuality the chief objection to his marriage 
with Marie Mancini would be removed. 

A few days after her return to La Rochelle, Marie 
addressed to the Cardinal the following letter : — 

Marie Mancini to the Cardinal. 

"La Rochelle, 22 August 1659. 

" Monseigneur, — I have seen the letter which your 
Eminence has done Madame de Venel the honour to 
write to her, 1 and I should suffer the greatest grief 
possible to conceive, if you were able to doubt my affec- 
tion and respect. I know too well the obligation which 
I am under to you not to render all my life an absolute 
submission to your orders. I should be in despair were 
your Eminence to doubt it. I have no good opinion of 
myself, and, even if I had, I should always submit to 
your orders. I feel that my welfare is in your hands, 
and I am tranquil, well knowing that you will have the 
goodness to assure it. If I have done anything to 
displease your Eminence, let me know of it, for 1 
submit blindly to your wishes. 

" Your Eminence is aware of the journey which we 
have just undertaken by the Queen's command. You 
will admit that I required to be extremely submissive 
to return to La Rochelle without allowing the mortifica- 
tion I experienced to be observed, and you have seen 
that, in this affair, I have had sufficient control over 
myself. Be persuaded that I am not oblivious of the 
obligation under which I am to you, and that I would 
lose my life rather than fail to prove to you the sub- 
mission which makes me, with respect, etc." 2 

1 Presumably, a letter written from Saint-Jean-de-Luz on 14 August, 
in which Mazarin had expressed in very strong terms his anger at the 
folly and obstinacy of his niece. 

2 Published by Lucien Perey, " Le Roman du Grand Roi." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 147 

The tone of this letter is obviously the result of the 
advice given by the King to his inamorata at Saint- 
Jean -d" A ngely. It did not, however, produce the 
effect upon the Cardinal which the writer expected. 
Informed by Madame de Venel of all that had taken 
place during the meeting between the lovers, Mazarin 
could hardly doubt that his Majesty's passion for his 
niece was as lively as ever, and he had, moreover, re- 
ceived from the Comtesse de Soissons a highly-coloured 
account of the manner in which Marie had treated her 
on that occasion, to which the countess joined some very 
unpleasant innuendoes respecting the tite-a-tetes which 
her sister had had with the King. He did not, in con- 
sequence, condescend to acknowledge Marie's letter ; 
but wrote a very angry one to Madame de Venel, and 
concluded by expressing his opinion that his niece was 
" g om g the right wa y to make herself the most unhappy 
woman of her age." This letter was duly shown by the 
gouvernante to her charge, with whom it provided food 
for very serious reflection. The imprudent girl had at 
first troubled very little about displeasing the Cardinal, 
believing that the King's love would be able to protect 
her against any extreme measures on her uncle's part. 
However, her continued exile and the veiled threats 
which his Eminence's letters contained had begun to 
alarm her. She was too intelligent not to perceive that 
Mazarin was resolved to promote at all costs the true 
interests of France and his master, and that, unless, as 
the King had himself advised her, she could contrive to 
conciliate him by a pretence of submission to his wishes, 
she was not unlikely to find herself shut up in a convent 
for the remainder of her days ; not, of course, in France, 
where Louis XIV could have interfered to prevent it, 
but in Italy. She therefore wrote to the Cardinal a very 



i.4« FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

long and very humble letter, defending herself against the 
charge of discourtesy to Madame de Soissons, to whom 
she promised to write very often and to testify "all kinds 
of affection," from which his Eminence would be able to 
judge how entirely submissive she was to his orders. 

This time Mazarin allowed himself to be persuaded, 
and wrote to the Comtesse de Soissons recommending 
her to behave " with more prudence and moderation " 
in regard to her sister. He feared that otherwise she 
might incur the displeasure of the King, even more than 
she had already contrived to do, which would not at all 
have suited the Cardinal's plans. 

In the midst of his grave political occupations and 
of the ceaseless anxiety which the continuance of 
Louis XIV's passion for his niece occasioned him, 
Mazarin did not neglect the most trifling matters. 
Thus, learning from Madame de Venel that Marianne 
was somewhat unwell, he wrote to Vallot, the King's 
first physician, begging him to prescribe for her by 
letter, which the doctor did, and sent the Cardinal 
reassuring reports as to the health of his favourite. The 
future patroness of La Fontaine — and Pradon — had 
even thus early shown her taste for belles lettres, and was 
in the habit of addressing to her uncle rhyming epistles 
modelled, apparently, on Loret's " Muse historique," 
which, to judge from the following specimen, written after 
her visit to Saint-Jean-d'Angely, must have afforded his 
Eminence much amusement. 

Marianne to the Cardinal. 

" 1 8 August 1659. 
" J'ai eu la plus grande joie 
De voir la reine et le roi. 
Mais le plaisir a ete bien court 
De ne voir qu'un instant la Cour. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 149 

Vous nous laissez longtemps 

Languir a La Rochelle, 

Nous autres pauvres pucelles. 

Vous ne songez non plus a nous, 

Que si nous etions des loups-garous. 

II me semble que vous ne devriez pas 

Oublier des nieces qui ont tant d'appas. 

Qui vous aiment si fort 

Qu'elles aimeraient mieux la mort, 

Qu'etre longtemps en absence 

De votre noble Eminence. 

Pour moi qui suis votre chere niece 

Je me mettrai en mille pieces 

Pour obeir toujours aveuglement 

Et vous donner contentement. 

La reine nous a donne 

Quatre montres en verite 

Que sont les plus belles 

Qui soient dans La Rochelle ; 

Ma sceur Hortense a eu 

La plus belle montre de tout. 

Je voudrais bien coucher avec vous 

Et que fussiez mon epoux, 

Monsieur, je vous supplie, 

Traitez-moi sans ceremonie, 

Car ce serait plutot moi 

Qui vous devrait faire la loi. 

Ou madame de Venel ment 

Ou vous ne lui ecrivez pas souvent, 

Elle se trouve fort en peine 

Quand elle a nouvelle de la reine 

Qui l'oblige de partir ; 

Craignant fort le dementir 

Elle pleure et se tourmente, 

Rendez-la done plus contente 

Et moi je vous dis adieu 

Parce que je vais prier Dieu." 1 

1 Published by Lucien Perey, " Le Roman du Grand Roi." 



i 5 o FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

The Cardinal's belief in Marie's assurances of sub- 
mission did not last long. Madame de Venel reported, 
under date 27 August, that the young lady had re- 
ceived two bulky epistles from the King almost at the 
same time, to which she had replied at equal length. 
To add to his uneasiness, Louis XIV wrote to him to 
plead the cause of his beloved, assuring the Cardinal 
that Marie's feelings towards his Eminence were very 
different from what he seemed to imagine, and begging 
him to show himself more indulgent and less of a scold. 
The poor Cardinal, who was suffering from " a furious 
attack of gout," appears to have quite lost his temper. 
He wrote to Madame de Venel, telling her to inform 
his niece that she might spare herself the trouble of 
writing to him any more, " since he knew very well 
what was in her mind and the value he ought to place 
in her professions of affection for him." And he ad- 
dressed to the King a long and eloquent letter, in which 
he drew a most unflattering portrait of Marie, and con- 
jured him, in the strongest possible terms, to master 
this passion, which threatened to prove so disastrous to 
the interests of France and his own reputation. 

Mazarin to the King. 

" 28 August, from Saint-Jean-de-Luz. 

" I beg you to be persuaded, once and for all, that I 
know not how to render you a greater or more im- 
portant service than to speak to you with the freedom 
which you have had the kindness to permit me to do 
where your service is concerned, and particularly on 
matters of consideration and importance, with which 
assuredly you have no servant capable of dealing with 
the zeal that I shall employ. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 151 

" I shall begin by telling you, in reference to your 
letter of 13 August, which treats of the kindly feeling 
which the person who is in question has for myself, and 
of the other things which it has pleased you to write to 
her advantage, that I am not surprised at the manner in 
which you speak, since it is your passion for her which 
prevents you, as is commonly the case with persons in 
a like state to yourself, from understanding her true 
character ; and I answer that, were it not for this passion, 
you would be of the same opinion as myself that this 
person has no affection for me, but, on the contrary, re- 
gards me with much aversion, because I do not flatter 
her follies ; that she has unbounded ambition, a capricious 
and passionate disposition, contempt for every one, no 
control over her actions, and a predilection for com- 
mitting all kinds of extravagant things ; that she is more 
unreasonable than ever since she had the honour of 
seeing you at Saint-Jean-d'Angely ; and, instead of re- 
ceiving your letters twice a week, she now receives them 
every day. In short, you will perceive, as I do, that she 
has a thousand faults and not a single good quality to 
render her worthy of your kindness. In your letter, you 
affirm your belief that my opinion of her is the result of 
the bad offices which people render her. Is it possible that 
you are under the impression that I, who am so dis- 
cerning and skilful in affairs of importance, am in entire 
ignorance of those which concern my family ? Can I 
entertain any doubt as to the intentions of this person in 
regard to myself ? when I see that she never fails to do 
in all things the contrary to what I order her ; that she 
turns the counsels I give her regarding her conduct into 
ridicule ; that the presumptuous acts she commits in the 
sight of all the world are prejudicial both to her own 
honour and my own ; that she wishes to make herself 



152 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

mistress and change all the orders that I give in my 
house ; and that, to conclude, despising all the care that I 
have employed, with so much affection, earnestness, and 
address, to place her in the right way and make her 
prudent, she persists in her follies, and intends to become 
the laughing-stock of the world ? 

" If the bad behaviour of this person were injuring only 
herself and me, I might disguise my feelings. But, since 
the evil is augmenting daily, and this connection is doing 
irreparable harm to the reputation and tranquillity of my 
master, it is impossible for me to tolerate it ; and I shall 
be compelled, in the end, to take resolutions whereby 
every one will be convinced that, where your service is 
in question, I am prepared to make every sacrifice. 

" And if I am so unhappy as to find that the passion 
which you cherish for this creature prevents you from 
realising the importance of the affair, nothing remains 
for me save to carry out the resolution with which I 
acquainted you in my letter from Cadillac ; * for, to be 
brief, there is no power which can deprive me of the 
absolute authority which God and the laws have given 
me over my family. And you will one day be the first 
to pay tribute to the service which I shall have rendered 
you, which will assuredly be the greatest of all, since, by 
my resolution, I shall have placed you in the way to be 
happy, and, along with that, to be the most glorious and 
the most accomplished king on earth. 

" I return to the person under discussion, who be- 
lieves herself more assured than ever of being able to 
dispose absolutely of your affection, since the new pro- 
mise you made her at Saint-Jean-d'Angely, and, if you 

1 His resolve, if all other means of bringing the King to reason failed, 
of resigning his post of chief Minister and carrying off Marie and her 
sisters to Italy. See p. 1 34 supra. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 153 

are obliged to marry, I know that her intention is to 
render the princess you wed unhappy all her life, which 
cannot happen without rendering you the same, nor 
without exposing you to a thousand grievous incon- 
veniences ; for you cannot expect the blessing of Heaven 
if you, on your part, do nothing to deserve it. 

" Since that last visit [the interview at Saint-Jean- 
d'Angely], which I always knew would be fatal, and 
which, for that reason, I strove to prevent, you have 
recommenced writing to her every day, not letters, but 
whole volumes, giving her an account of even the most 
trifling happenings, and reposing in her the utmost 
confidence, to the exclusion of every one else ; in such a 
way that your whole time is occupied in reading her 
letters and in writing your own. And what is in- 
comprehensible, is that you employ every imaginable 
expedient to excite your passion, while you are on the eve 
of your marriage. Thus, you are labouring to render 
yourself the most unhappy of all men, since there is no 
condition more insupportable than a marriage which is 
contrary to one's inclination. 

" But tell me, I entreat you, what is this girl's in- 
tention, when once you are married ? Has she forgotten 
her duty so far as to believe that, if I were so dishonour- 
able a man, or, to speak more plainly, so infamous as to 
approve of it, she will be able to assume a position which 
will dishonour her? 1 Perhaps she imagines that she can 
act thus without any one murmuring, since she has 
gained every one's heart. But she is greatly deceived, 
since her conduct has aroused so much feeling against her 
amongst all who are acquainted with her, that I should 
find it hard to name one who has any esteem or good- 
will for her, save Hortense, who is a child whom she 

1 That is to say, become the King's mistress. 



154 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

has won over by flattery and by giving her money and 
other things ; having found, so I conceive, some trea- 
sure, since she refused to accept the money which I 
ordered Madame de Venel to give her to any amount 
she desired, when she went to La Rochelle. 1 

" The greatest good fortune which can happen to this 
person, is for me to set matters in order without delay, 
and if. I cannot render her prudent, which I believe to 
be impossible, at least to prevent her follies being any 
longer patent to the world, since, otherwise, she will 
run the risk of being ruined. 

"You will hear all this with astonishment, because 
the affection which you bear her leaves you no room 
to discern clearly what concerns her. But for myself, 
who am not preoccupied, and who, whatever the cost 
may be, desire to serve you at this juncture, which is 
the most important of your life, even if it should cost 
me my own, I see the truth as it is, for otherwise I 
should be committing a kind of treason. For the rest, 
let things happen as they will, since I am prepared to 
die, provided it be in the execution of my duty and in 
serving you, as I am obliged to do, particularly in this 
matter, with which no one except myself can know 
how to deal. 

"... I do not doubt that she [Marie Mancini] is 
aware of all that I have the honour to write to you; 
but, very far from fearing that, I desire it passionately ; 
and would to God that I believed her capable of giving 
sound counsel concerning the affairs about which you 
take the trouble to inform her, for I should willingly 
ask to be relieved of this anxiety ! But I confess to you 

1 This is a palpable hit at the King, who had been supplying Marie with 
money wherewith to secure the good-will of those about her and facili- 
tate the correspondence between the lovers. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 155 

that at my age, and in the midst of all the occupations 
by which I am overwhelmed, and in which it seems to 
me to be sufficient happiness to serve you with credit 
and with advantage to your State, it is intolerable for 
me to find myself disturbed on account of a person 
who, for all kinds of reasons, ought to tear herself in 
pieces in order to relieve me. And what distresses me 
to the last degree, is that, instead of sparing me this 
sorrow, you contribute thereto, by giving this wretched 
girl courage and resolution to act as she is doing. 

" I was altogether relieved in my mind by what you 
took the trouble to write to me, and by the manner in 
which you had begun to conduct yourself after my 
despatch from Cadillac ; and I believed that you had no 
other thought than to prepare the way to be happy 
in your marriage, which could only be by putting an 
end to the passion which had rendered itself mistress 
of your mind. But I have seen, with sensible grief, 
that since this fatal visit [the interview at Saint-Jean- 
d'Angely], which I would have prevented at the cost 
of my blood, everything is in a worse condition than 
before. And it is unnecessary for you to explain the 
matter differently, for I cannot doubt it, and I may say 
that I know all as well as you. Consider after that, 
I beg of you, what must be my condition, and if the 
world contains a more unhappy man than myself, who, 
after having always applied himself zealously to augment 
your reputation and to procure, by all the most difficult 
means, the triumph of your arms, has the grief to 
behold a person related to him on the point of over- 
turning everything and of compassing your ruin, if you 
continue to give a free rein to the passion which you 
have for her. 

"Can I, without injury to the fidelity which I owe 



156 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

you, and without betraying my obligations, abstain from 
warning you that you are taking a road altogether con- 
trary to decorum and to the happiness to which you 
ought to aspire, since, on the eve of your marriage, 
you are abandoning yourself more than ever to your 
passion ? For whatever power you may have over 
yourself, and whatever progress you may have made, 
on the advice of her whom you love, in the art of 
dissimulation, you cannot conceal your aversion for this 
marriage, although it be the most advantageous and the 
most glorious that you can possibly contract. You lay 
yourself open to receive proofs of the wrath of God, 
if you proceed to marry a princess whom you do not 
love, with the intention of living on bad terms with 
her, as the other person [Marie] threatens to do with 
her whom you wed. 

" I find myself greatly embarrassed . . . about con- 
cluding the final negotiations in regard to your marriage ; 
since it seems to me I am promising what cannot be 
performed, and that I am contributing to the establish- 
ment of a state of things which will render miserable an 
innocent girl who is deserving of your affection [the 
Infanta]. 

" It is time for you to come to a decision and to 
declare your intentions without any concealment ; since 
it is a thousand times better to break off" all negotia- 
tions and continue the war, without troubling ourselves 
about the misery of Christendom and the injury which 
your State and your subjects will thereby receive, than 
to conclude this marriage, if it will produce only your 
unhappiness and that of your kingdom. 

"All this is what the passion, the fidelity, and the 
zeal that I have for your service constrains me to repre- 
sent to you with the freedom that I ought, as an old 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 157 

servant who desires only your credit, and who has more 
interest and obligation than any one else, not only in 
telling you the truth, but, further, in sacrificing his life 
for so good a master as yourself. Finally, I protest to 
you that nothing can prevent me dying of grief, if I see 
a person who is so dear to me as you occasion more un- 
happiness and disaster than I have rendered you service 
since the first day I began to serve you." 

Never had Mazarin found himself in a more difficult 
or more embarrassing position. " This affair," wrote he 
subsequently to Colbert, " is perhaps the most delicate in 
which I have ever been engaged, and which has occa- 
sioned me the greatest uneasiness." He passed the 
three or four days before he received the King's answer 
in a state of the most painful anxiety, though he had the 
art to conceal his apprehensions and to persevere in the 
boldness of his language. " I flatter myself that I ren- 
dered you a very important service twenty-four hours 
since," he writes to the King, the day following that on 
which he had addressed to him his memorable letter, 
" having written to you with the freedom and candour 
which a faithful servant who has more interest than any 
one else in your reputation and happiness ought to 
employ. I await your reply with great impatience, since 
by it I must regulate my conduct and form the resolu- 
tion which I shall deem capable of delivering you from 
the passion whereby you are at present possessed." 

Louis XIV's answer, which reached him on 3 Septem- 
ber, was very different from what he had expected, and 
filled him with consternation. The young monarch, 
madly in love as he was, had resented Mazarin's stric- 
tures upon the character and conduct of his niece as so 
many insults to himself, and, though the contents of 



158 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

the document are not known, there can be no doubt, 
from the letters which the Cardinal immediately addres- 
sed to the King and Queen, that it must have contained 
a stinging rebuke. 1 A letter from the latter reached 
him by the same courier who brought his Majesty's 
reply, and related that, on the arrival of Mazarin's letter, 
there had been a painful scene between mother and son, 
in which Louis had again accused the Queen of embit- 
tering the Cardinal against his niece, and had declared 
his resolution of listening to no more advice from either 
of them. 

To Anne of Austria, Mazarin replied : — 

Mazarin to the Queen. 

" 3 September, Saint- Jean-de-Luz. 

" I am in despair at seeing, from all that you have 
the goodness to write to me, the grief which you are 
experiencing. Would to God that I were able to afford 
you relief in shedding all my blood, for I would do so 
with the greatest joy imaginable ! The answer of the 
confidant [the King] is conceived in terms which show 
me plainly enough that he has no more affection for me 
or consideration for his own interests. Consequently, I 
have no alternative, save to execute his orders to 
abridge the time of the marriage, and after having signed 
the contract and the articles of peace, which will be 
glorious and advantageous for his person and his State, 
to take the resolution which will be the best calculated 
to deliver him from my importunities and the best for 
his service ; praying God with all my heart to bless my 
intentions." 

1 According to Choisy, Louis XIV wrote that Mazarin might do as 
he pleased, and that if he abandoned the conduct of his affairs, many 
others would willingly take charge of them. 




From an engraving after the painting by Mignard 

ANNE OF AUSTRIA, QUEEN OF FRANCE 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 159 

"Here," remarks Marie Mancini's biographer, Lucien 
Perey, " the Cardinal observes more tact than in his 
letter to the King. He was well aware that the Queen, 
so weak when confronted by her son, could only hope 
to hold her own against him on rare occasions ; and he, 
therefore, makes use of the most powerful incentive to 
rouse her to action, namely, the threat of his own 
departure. We have seen how much Anne of Austria 
had suffered during the Cardinal's exile at Cologne. 
From that time, the links which united them had been 
given a new strength, and he well knew the effect which 
the fear of a fresh separation would produce on her 
mind. Nothing, then, could have been more adroit 
than the phrase which we have just read." 1 

The tone of Mazarin's letter to the King is very 
different from that of 28 August. Then the Minister 
was imperious and determined ; now he is all humility 
and submission, though the conclusion is not without a 
touch of dignity. 

Mazarin to the King. 

" Saint- Jean-de-Luz, 3 September. 

" Sire, — Immediately on receipt of your letter, I take 
up the pen to give myself the honour of telling you 
that, although your answer is rather terse, I recognise 
sufficiently your intentions and the situation of your 
mind as regards myself. Your kindness has never 
permitted you up to now either to write or to speak to 
me as you have on this occasion. It does not, however, 
cause me surprise, for, since the journey to Lyons, I 
have always doubted very much whether, if I were not 
sacrificed to the person in question, I should not be to 
some other. 

1 " Le Roman du Grand Roi." 



160 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

"Had you taken the trouble to examine my letter, 
you would have found therein ample grounds for 
expressing to me your gratitude for what I wrote to you, 
actuated by a pure and disinterested motive for your 
service, reputation, and honour ; and you would not 
treat me extravagantly as you do, in telling me that I 
have a bad opinion of you and that I believe you to be 
a liar. I should not deserve to live, if I had such 
thoughts about my master. But I tell you the truth 
without failing in the respect I owe you, when I 
maintain that the passion you have for the person 
whom you love [Marie Mancini] prevents you from 
seeing her faults, and that I know that she has no 
affection for me, notwithstanding what you have taken 
the trouble to write to me to the contrary. For, 
without doing you any wrong, I think that I know 
better what she is and the manner in which she has 
conducted herself towards me. If you are angered 
with me, as you say at the commencement of your 
letter, you have only to order me to the place to which 
you desire me to repair to feel the effects of your 
indignation, and I shall not fail to obey you. Be sure, 
at least, that, without making the slightest protest, I 
shall publicly announce that you are in the right and 
that I am culpable. 

" You have, however, too much sense of justice to 
wish to deprive me of honour in payment for my 
services ; and it is quite sufficient, it appears to me, to 
deprive me of life and all that I possess in the world, 
without depriving me of the liberty that laws divine and 
human give me to dispose of my family. 

" I implore you very humbly to pardon me, if I have 
importuned you over much, assuring you that I shall do 
so no more in the future. Finally, to abridge the time 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 161 

of your marriage, I shall sign the articles relating to it 
and those of the peace, according to your orders, which 
done, I shall go to end my days in the place to which 
you may be pleased to order me, satisfied with having 
had the happiness to serve for thirty years the King, 
your father, and yourself, without your army or your 
affairs having suffered any loss of reputation. I 
demand only this favour, that you will be persuaded 
that, whatever may be my fate, I shall be to the last 
moment of my life the most faithful and the most 
devoted creature that you have." 

Up to this moment, Louis XIV seems to have really 
believed that some obstacle would intervene to prevent 
the conclusion of peace and his marriage with the 
Infanta ; the wish being in all probability father to the 
thought. But the Cardinal's letter, humble and sub- 
missive though it was, spoke of the treaty as a thing 
already assured, and showed him that the Minister 
anticipated no difficulties other than those of his 
Majesty's own creating. His eyes were opened, and 
he saw that it was no longer possible for him to draw 
back, unless he desired to take upon himself the entire 
responsibility for the continuance of a sanguinary and 
useless war, and the universal opprobrium which such 
an action must involve. His grief was terrible, and in 
the next letter he wrote to Marie Mancini he was unable 
to conceal from her his apprehensions. 

The receipt of the King's letter threw the poor girl 
into the direst distress. She recognised at once how 
futile had been the hope, to which she had clung so 
tenaciously, that the young monarch's devotion to her 
would be proof against the pressure of the immense 
interests arrayed against them. A letter from Mazarin's 



1 62 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

creature Ondedei, Bishop of Frejus, confirmed her fears, 
and, finally, she learned, through Colbert, that Marechal 
de Gramont had received orders to proceed to Madrid, to 
make a formal demand for the Infanta's hand, on behalf 
of his master. Her pride, stronger than her love and her 
grief, asserted itself, and urged her at least to secure to 
herself the credit of being the first to break the ties 
which her lover seemed powerless to preserve. She 
immediately resolved to cease all communication with the 
King, and forthwith wrote to the Cardinal to inform 
him of her determination and her willingness to submit 
to his orders. 

Marie Mancini to the Cardinal. 

"La Rochelle, 3 September 1 659. 

" Monseigneur, — I believe that presently your 
Eminence will have reason to be satisfied with me, 
owing to the course which I intend to adopt. I have 
begged the King to consent that I should write to him 
no more, and to do the same also for me. 

" Your Eminence has only to cause him to show you 
the letter which I have written to him, and he will 
see that I am not deceiving him. To conclude, I 
entreat your Eminence very humbly to believe that 
I have no other thought than to conform in all things 
to all his intentions and to follow implicitly all his 
commands. 

"... I shall esteem myself very happy, if once you 
can be fully persuaded of my submission and gratitude. 
I am, as I should be, Monseigneur, your Eminence's 

very humble . . . 

"Marie de Mancini." 1 

1 Published by Lucien Perey, " Le Roman du Grand Roi." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 163 

This letter was accompanied by one from Madame de 
Venel, confirming the good news. " From the moment 
when the King gave her [Marie] to understand that there 
was no obstacle in the way of his marriage," wrote the 
gouvernante, " her conduct has undergone a complete 
change ; her countenance is altogether different ; she is 
gay, amuses herself, and behaves as Seneca would have 
done on a like occasion ; she has made so many moral 
reflections that all the philosophers combined could not 
have known so much as she does. I assure you, 
Monseigneur, that the sight of her present conduct 
occasions me all the joy imaginable." 

We can well imagine the relief of the anxious 
Cardinal on receiving these letters, as unexpected as 
they were welcome. He had opened his niece's with 
serious misgivings ; but, after perusing the first few 
lines, his joy was such that he summoned the Bishop of 
Frejus to listen to its contents. Then he sat down 
and wrote to Madame de Venel a letter expressive of 
his delight at finding that his niece had at last proved 
amenable to reason, and referring to that young lady 
in terms strangely different from those which he had 
employed in his celebrated letter to the King. 

Mazarin to Madame de Venel. 

" Saint- Jean-de-Luz, 8 September. 
" I confess to you that I have not for a long time 
experienced a pleasure so great as that which I have 
received in reading the letter which my niece has written 
me, and the news that you give of her present state of 
mind, after she had become aware that the King's 
marriage was absolutely decided upon. I never doubted 
her intelligence, but I mistrusted her judgment, and 
particularly in a matter wherein a strong passion, accom- 



164 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

panied by so many circumstances to render it furious, 
left no room for reason to act. 

" I reply to you again that it affords me the greatest 
conceivable joy to have such a niece, seeing that, of her 
own accord, she has taken so generous a resolution, and 
one so much in conformity with her own honour and my 
satisfaction. I am acquainting the King with what she 
has written to me and what she has done. I am assured 
that his Majesty will esteem her the more for it, and, if 
France knew of the manner in which she has conducted 
herself in this matter, it would desire for her every kind 
of happiness and give her a thousand blessings. But I 
am in a sufficient position to make her feel the results of 
my affection and of the inclination that I have always 
had for her, which has only been interrupted, because it 
appeared that she had none for me and attached no im- 
portance to my counsels, although they had no other 
end than her own happiness and peace of mind. 

" I beg you to express to her, on my behalf, that I 
love her with all my heart ; that I am about to give 
serious consideration to the question of marrying her 
and making her happy, and that she will be so to the 
last degree, if she applies herself earnestly to profit by 
the affection which I have for her and the esteem I feel 
for her, on account of the action which she has just 
done ; for I declare to you, without exaggeration, that it 
would be difficult to expect the like in a person of forty 
years who had lived all her life among the philosophers. 

"And, since she is pleased to indulge in moral reflec- 
tions, you must tell her from me that she ought to read 
the books which have been well spoken of in that con- 
nection, particularly Seneca, wherein she will find matter 
to console her and to confirm her joyfully in the resolu- 
tion she has just taken. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 165 

" I am persuaded that she loves too much her honour, 
advantage, and reputation to make the least change in 
that ; and you must tell her from me that I should be 
in despair if such were to happen, and that she would 
lose the merit of the finest action that she could possibly 
do all her life. 

" I do not send a long answer, because this letter will 
serve for her. I desire her to take every opportunity of 
writing to me, and to express to me freely all her senti- 
ments ; for I shall be enchanted to contribute, by my 
replies, to place her in a position to be loved and 
esteemed by all, and to procure, in all kinds of ways, her 
contentment. 

" It is necessary for her to take walks and indulge in 
every kind of amusement which may contribute to keep 
her mind in the state of tranquillity I desire for her ; and, 
if money for her diversions be required, you have only 
to apply for it to the Sieur de Terron, 1 who will refuse 
nothing which you may ask of him." 

And, the same day, the Cardinal addressed to his niece 
the following letter : — 

Mazarin to Marie Mancini. 

" Saint-Jean-de-Luz, 8 September. 

" You could not give me a greater joy than by 
writing to acquaint me with the resolution at which you 
have just arrived. I pray God with all my heart that 
it may please Him to assist you, so that you may carry 
it out, as you ought to do, for all kinds of reasons, 
being able to tell you, without flattering you, that you 
could do nothing in your whole life which would give 
you more honour and glory than what you will derive 

1 Colbert de Terron, Governor of La Rochelle. 



i66 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

from the action which you have just done. I am writing 
at length to Madame de Venel. That is why I shall 
not say anything further here, since I could only repeat 
to you the same things. I beg you only to be assured 
of my regard and affection, and that I shall not delay in 
giving you proofs of it on all occasions." 



CHAPTER IX 

The King declines to accept Marie Mancini's decision and continues to 
write to her — She refuses to reply to his letters — Letter of Mazarin 
to the King — Reports of Madame de Venel — The Cardinal's nieces 
remove from La Rochelle to Brouage — Letter of Marie to her uncle 
— The King persists in writing to Marie, who, however, continues 
inflexible — Letters of Mazarin to his nieces — Rhyming response of 
Marianne — The Cardinal sends his confidential agent Bartet to 
Bordeaux to keep watch upon the actions of the King — His reports — 
The Comtesse de Soissons, at Mazarin's request, endeavours to regain 
her former influence over Louis XIV — The King sends Marie a 
present of a little dog — Treachery of Colbert de Terron, Governor 
of La Rochelle, to the Cardinal — Marie begs her uncle to find a 
husband for her — And expresses a preference for Prince Charles of 
Lorraine — The Constable Colonna demands her hand — Reports of 
Bartet in regard to the King and the Comtesse de Soissons — The 
countess, by the Queen's order, writes to her sister — Despair of 
Marie — Mazarin sends the Bishop of Frejus to Brouage to propose 
to his niece the Colonna marriage — She refuses — Letters of the 
Cardinal and the King to Marie — Return of the Miles. Mancini to 
Paris — Severe orders of the Cardinal as to the manner in which they 
are to conduct themselves — Letters of the King to Marie — A touch- 
ing incident — Amusing letter of Marianne Mancini to the Cardinal — 
Prince Charles of Lorraine. 

TN the meanwhile, Louis XIV, at Bordeaux, had 
received Marie's letter, in which the girl announced 
to him her intention of writing to him no more, and 
begged him to cease all communication with her. The 
letter appears to have occasioned his Majesty as much 
astonishment as pain, although, aware as he was of the 
proud and passionate character of his mistress, he ought 
certainly to have foreseen something of this nature. 
However, he could not bring himself to believe that she 

167 



1 68 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

would persist in such a resolution, and immediately wrote 
her an expostulatory letter four pages in length. 

" The ordinary courier of this evening," writes 
Madame de Venel to the Cardinal, " brought a letter of 
four pages for Mile, de Mancini. After receiving it, 
she told me that she desired to reply for the last time ; 
that she had forgotten in her previous letter to beg the 
King to burn her letters, and wished to do so. She 
repeated that it would be for the last time. I answered 
her : * But what is your pleasure that I should write to 
his Eminence, after the letter which you made me write 
him by the last courier, and which you read ? ' She 
responded angrily : ' Tell him that I am writing to him 
[the King].' " 

The King, though deeply wounded by Marie's persist- 
ence, still refused to believe that she would continue to 
resist his importunities, and wrote her letter after 
letter ; but the girl's pride sustained her, and after the 
brief note begging him to burn the letters he had 
received from her, not even the most passionate entrea- 
ties could wring so much as a line from her. Over- 
whelmed with grief, Louis had, nevertheless, courage 
enough to endeavour to conceal his sufferings from 
those about him, and, to find some distraction from his 
melancholy reflections, turned his attention to the nego- 
tiations which were in progress on the frontier. It was 
then, perhaps, that he began to comprehend something of 
the great service which the Cardinal had rendered him 
in combating with so much resolution a passion which, 
if it had been allowed to take its course, would have 
been fraught with such disastrous consequences both to 
himself and his kingdom. Any way, he appears to 
have regretted the angry and imperious tone of the 
letter which had caused Mazarin such consternation, 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 169 

and now wrote to the Minister in the most affectionate 
terms, begging him to forget the rebuke which he had 
then administered to him and to continue to write to 
him with the utmost freedom. To which the delighted 
Cardinal hastened to reply. 

Mazarin to the King. 

" Saint-Jean-de-Luz, 14 September 1659. 

" If I received with joy the terms wherein it pleased 
you to write to me on the last occasion, you will readily 
believe that your letter of the nth, which I have just 
received, has rendered me the most contented man in 
the world, in seeing to what degree it pleases you to 
honour me with the assurances of your friendship. 
And, although you render me justice when you tell me 
that you recognise clearly that I have no other end in 
all that I have written to you, save your credit, your 
tranquillity, and the welfare of your service, I am, not- 
withstanding, under infinite obligations to you for the 
same ; and, whatever resolution I had taken to the con- 
trary, I shall execute with pleasure the order which you 
give me, always to write to you freely all my opinions in 
matters which concern your service. 

" I have not dared to inform you how satisfied I am 
with the person you wot of [Marie Mancini], for I 
feared that perhaps it might not be agreeable to you, 
for which reason I addressed myself to the confidante 
[the Queen], well knowing that she would tell you 
everything. 

" I entreat you now to profit by the grace that God 
has bestowed on you in giving you so excellent an 
example to follow, and you will see that, if you take a 
generous resolution to endeavour to obtain the mastery 
over yourself, you will have peace of mind and will give 



170 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

it also to the said person, and you will place yourself 
also in a position to find happiness in your marriage, 
for I assure you the Infanta will give you reason to 
be so. 

" To conclude, I know not how to tell you how much 
I love the person whom I did not believe capable of an 
action such as she has just done, and I esteem her the 
more, inasmuch as it was the only remedy capable of 
placing you in a position to conquer your passion." 

During this unexpected crisis, Madame de Venel sent 
daily bulletins to the Cardinal, who had strictly en- 
joined upon her to give him immediate warning should 
she note the slightest sign of wavering on the part of 
his niece. 

" Mademoiselle," writes the gouvernante, under date 
io September, "has received her letter [from the King] 
as usual, but she will make no reply to it. She did me 
the honour to tell me this evening that she will never 
write any more. . . . She will go to Brouage next week, 
to amuse herself for some days." 

And again, on 15 September : 

" Mademoiselle starts to-morrow for Brouage. Made- 
moiselle's state of mind is better than your Eminence 
could possibly desire, and very assuredly I believe it 
entirely at ease. Saturday last, she did not write, nor 
did any one write a line on her behalf. She amuses 
herself very well ; she is just now playing at blindman's 
buff with M. de Lionne. If she finds Brouage more to 
her liking, she will remain there ; if not, she will return 
here to await what your Eminence will have the good- 
ness to do for her. Assuredly, the letter which your 
Eminence wrote her has entirely confirmed her in her 
generous resolution." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 171 

And then, on the morrow, from Brouage : 

" Mesdemoiselles arrived yesterday in this town in 
good health ; the garrison gave them the best reception 
they could ; cannon fired salutes, and the intendant 
entertained them magnificently. Mademoiselle forti- 
fies herself every day in her generous resolution ; she 
has never been so gay ; she plays for high stakes, and 
won thirty pistoles off the intendant." 

In a further letter, dated the 20th, the Cardinal was 
informed that " Mademoiselle de Mancini had received 
no letter by that day's courier," and that " Mademoiselle's 
mind appeared very tranquil." 

On her arrival at Brouage, Marie herself hastened to 
write a reassuring letter to her uncle. 

Marie Mancini to the Cardinal. 

" Brouage, 15 September. 

" Monseigneur, — I cannot omit to thank your 
Eminence for all the kindness and affection which 
you express for me. For my part, at present, I do 
everything possible to find distraction. I arrived yes- 
terday at Brouage, where we were accorded the most 
courteous reception possible to imagine. Since your 
Eminence has the kindness to wish that I render him 
an account of all that I do, I will tell him that I amuse 
myself the most part of the time at play, and have won 
thirty pistoles. Play treats me in the most unkind man- 
ner imaginable ; we do not play for high stakes — indeed, 
we could not play for smaller ones — but I persist in 
losing. The rest of the time I amuse myself by read- 
ing, particularly Seneca, wherein I remark a thousand 
beautiful things, which I find in addition to those of 
which you have told me. 



172 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

"... I cannot say anything more to your Eminence, 
save that he will see by the manner in which I shall con- 
duct myself that I have no other desire than to do my 
duty and to please him, and thereby to merit all the 
kindness which he has shown for me. I promise your 
Eminence that henceforth I will write very often to 
Madame la Comtesse, 1 and that I will testify to her 
all kinds of affection, with the greatest joy imaginable, 
since by that you will judge of my submission to your 
orders. ..." 

In her " Memoires," Marie informs us that she had 
resolved to go to Brouage, a dull little coast town, hem- 
med in by salt marches, because the solitude of the place 
accorded better with her state of mind than the gaiety 
and bustle of the thriving port of La Rochelle. Her 
latest biographer, Lucien Perey, however, ascribes to 
her a different motive : 

" She had not forgotten her uncle's threat to remove 
her by force out of the King's reach ; the King had not 
concealed it from her ; and, in the alternations of despair 
and of fleeting hope to which she was a prey, the poor 
child still believed, for a moment, in the possibility of 
the Spanish marriage being broken off ; in which event, 
it would have been easier for her to escape from that 
place in a little boat belonging to the fishermen, of 
whom there were a great number at Brouage, than from 
the port of La Rochelle, full of large vessels, to all the 
officers of which she was known. We have every 
reason to believe that this advice had been given her 
by the King, before the interruption of their corre- 
spondence." 2 

Louis XIV continued to write every day to his 

1 Her sister Olympe, Comtesse de Soissons. 

2 " Le Roman du Grand Roi." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 173 

inamorata, who, however, remained inflexible in her 
resolution not to reply, and sent her uncle renewed 
assurances of her entire submission to his wishes. 

Marie Mancini to the Cardinal. 

"October 1659. 
"... I received to-day a little letter from the King. 
It contained but two lines, wherein he expresses to me 
the joy that he experiences in observing that your 
Eminence is so satisfied with me. I confess to you that 
I have had no small difficulty in preventing myself from 
writing to him, and what gives me strength to do it 
is my duty and my desire to satisfy your Eminence. I 
wish thereby to make you understand that I am the 
most devoted of nieces." 

Mazarin replied, praising her firmness, which, he de- 
clared, was such as no longer to permit him to fear any 
change, and assuring her that he would lose no oppor- 
tunity of giving her proofs of his affection, and that she 
would find in him " not only a good uncle, but a father 
who loved her with all his heart." He advises her to 
seek distraction, to go and spend a few days in the 
pretty Isle of Oleron, recommends her to hunt and to 
fish and to entertain her friends, and informs her that 
he has directed Madame de Venel to supply her with all 
the money she may require. 

The Cardinal also wrote to his other nieces. He begs 
Hortense to take no heed to what Marianne says in 
disparagement of her writing and her style, as he is 
quite satisfied with both, but to continue to write to 
him. He praises Marianne's verses, which afford him 
great pleasure, advises her, when she is at a loss for a 
rhyme, to seek her sisters' assistance, and concludes by 
assuring her that no one loves her as he does. 



174 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Marianne was much flattered by his Eminence's letter, 
and lost no time in sending him further proofs of her 
proficiency in verse-making. 

Marianne to the Cardinal. 

" l er October 1659. 
" Des quej'ai regu votre lettre 
Elle m'a donne une si grande joie 
Qui si l'on m'eut fait roi ! 
Je suis si aise que mes vers 
Vous divertissent quoiqu'ils soient de travers I 
Mais ils sont fort beaux pour une personne de mon age, 
Qui n'est pas volage. 
Vous avez ecrit a ma soeur Hortense 
Qu'elle ecrive tous les ordinaires 
Et je crois que ses vers 
Ne seront pas de bon air 
Quand ils seraient du meilleur air, je pense 

Que les miens les effaceront 
Car ils ont plus d'esprit et de raison. 
Vous me dites de prier mes soeurs d'achever mes rimes, 
Mais j'ai l'esprit trop magnanime. 
Ma soeur Hortense m'a prie je ne sais combien 
De finir sa lettre qui ne vaut rien ; 
Elle m'a fort etourdie 
Et lisant toutes ses folies, 
Et moi je vous dis sagement : 
Je veux que vous soyez mon amant 
Et je vous aimerai tendrement 
Jusques au jour du jugement." 1 

In spite of the reassuring letters which he received 
from Marie, confirmed as they were by the daily reports 
of Madame de Venel, Mazarin was still far from 
satisfied that the affair which had caused him such 
terrible anxiety was definitely at an end. The persist- 
ence with which Louis XIV continued to write to the 
1 Published by Lucien Perey, " Le Roman du Grand Roi." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 175 

girl, notwithstanding her obstinate refusal to reply to 
his letters, seemed to indicate that his Majesty's 
passion had been very far from extinguished by the 
unexpected turn events had taken, and caused the 
Cardinal much uneasiness. He felt the necessity of 
having a confidential agent near the person of the King, 
who could be trusted to discharge there a similar 
function to that which Madame de Venel exercised so 
efficiently at Brouage ; and, accordingly, despatched his 
confidant Bartet to Bordeaux, ostensibly on a mission 
to the Queen, but in reality to keep watch over his 
Majesty and furnish his patron with a full and particular 
account of all his actions. 

Bartet's reports did not tend to allay the Cardinal's 
apprehensions. He wrote that the King seemed greatly 
depressed ; that he was always very reticent on the 
subject of the Infanta, and did not appear to take the 
faintest interest in what Bartet, who had lately been 
in Spain, had ventured to tell him about that princess. 
Moreover, he appeared to have no heart for the gaieties 
of the Court, and had declined to be present at a ball 
given by Monsieur. On the other hand, when a com- 
pany of strolling -players, which had recently visited 
La Rochelle, gave a performance at Bordeaux, his 
Majesty had attended it, and had questioned the actors 
as to whether the Mesdemoiselles Mancini had patron- 
ised their entertainment. Bartet added that, during 
the evening, the King seemed very sad and did not speak 
a word to any one. 

The Cardinal, on his agent's advice, now resolved to 
enlist the good offices of the Comtesse de Soissons, and 
begged her to leave no means untried to recover the 
influence over the King of which her younger sister 
had deprived her. The ambitious and jealous Olympe 



176 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

consented readily enough, and made " every imaginable 
advance " to his Majesty, who, touched apparently by 
her anxiety to please him, received her back into some 
degree at least of her former favour. But alas ! the 
Cardinal's satisfaction at this news was very short-lived, 
for almost directly afterwards he heard that the King 
had sent to Brouage a present of a little dog, one 
of the offspring of his beloved lapdog Friponne, with 
a collar round its neck, on which was inscribed, " A 
Marie de Mancini." Nor was his vexation lessened 
by his learning from Bartet that the departure of the 
little dog was known to all the Court, and that the 
Queen was " greatly disturbed." 

This news was followed by intelligence of a far more 
alarming character. The letters of the King to Marie 
had, as we have mentioned, been addressed under cover 
to Colbert de Terron, the Governor of La Rochelle, 
who had handed them to Madame de Venel, to be 
passed on to her charge. There can be little doubt 
that, on more than one occasion, Terron and the 
gouventante, acting on Mazarin's instructions, had made 
themselves acquainted with the contents of these inter- 
esting epistles, by a method which had effectually baffled 
detection. Now, however, the Cardinal learned, to his 
amazement, that the governor, whom he had hitherto 
believed to be entirely devoted to his interests, had 
been playing him false ; that the letters from the King 
which he had handed to Madame de Venel were not the 
only ones from his Majesty which had reached La 
Rochelle ; that, by the King's orders, the faithless 
Terron had held long and frequent conversations with 
Mile. Marie, seeking by every possible argument to 
shake the girl's resolution to hold no further communi- 
cation with her royal lover, and encouraging her to 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 177 

hope that, since it had been found impossible to cele- 
brate Louis XIV's marriage with the Infanta before the 
following spring, it might not after all take place. 

It is amusing to note that his Eminence's informant 
was none other than Louis XIV's own confidential valet- 
de-chambre, Blouin, "whom the Cardinal had purchased 
body and soul." 

Mazarin was, of course, furious with Terron, 1 who, 
however, entrenched himself behind the express orders 
of the King ; and the Cardinal was, in consequence, com- 
pelled to overlook his delinquency and derive what 
consolation he could from an assurance that he was 
deeply penitent and would offend no more, but would 
deal with future epistles from his Majesty " as his 
Eminence might be pleased to order him." 

This discovery troubled Mazarin beyond measure, 
for it showed him that Louis's passion was still as 
lively as ever, and he had serious doubts whether his 
niece would continue to resist the entreaties of her 
lover. He, accordingly, determined to take without 
delay a step which would put an end to the affair alto- 
gether, at least so far as marriage was concerned. 

In the early days of her rupture with the King, while 
suffering all the anguish of wounded pride, Marie had 
begged her uncle to find a husband for her as speedily 
as possible, to save her from the humiliations to which 
she felt that she would be subjected, should Louis XIV's 
marriage with the Infanta find her still unwed. At the 

1 The devoted Colbert was greatly enraged at his relative's treachery, 
which, he wrote to the Cardinal, was a reflection on the whole Colbert 
family, and made him feel unworthy to subscribe himself his Eminence's 
very faithful servant. So incensed was he that he even talked of pro- 
ceeding to La Rochelle to mete out punishment to his faithless kinsman 
with his own hands ; and the Cardinal had to send him orders to forego 
his intended vengeance. 



178 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

same time, she had expressed a strong disinclination to 
become the wife of a foreign prince, above all of an 
Italian or a Spaniard, and had intimated her preference 
for Prince Charles of Lorraine, nephew and heir of 
the reigning Duke, the eccentric Charles IV, of whose 
good qualities she had heard much while at Court. 
The Cardinal was more than a little doubtful as to the 
wisdom of his niece's choice, deeming that the greater 
the distance he could contrive to place between her and 
Paris, the better it would be for the peace of mind of 
all parties concerned. But, since it appeared to him to 
be advisable to humour her at this juncture, he now 
wrote to inform her that he was sending the Bishop of 
Frejus to Brouage, with proposals of marriage on behalf 
of the Prince of Lorraine. As a matter of fact, he had 
had no dealings whatever with the prince in question, 
and was at that moment in constant communication 
with Don Pedro Colonna, whom he saw almost every 
day during the Conferences, with the view of marry- 
ing his wayward niece to the latter's nephew, Lorenzo 
Onofrio Colonna, Principe di Palliano, Grand Constable 
of the kingdom of Naples, one of the greatest noble- 
men of Italy and Spain. Don Pedro wrote to his 
nephew, at Rome, strongly urging the advantages of a 
union with the family of the wealthy and all-powerful 
Minister ; and the Constable accepted the proposition 
with alacrity, notwithstanding that he was perfectly 
aware of Marie's love-affair, which, indeed, was by this 
time the talk of all Europe. 

Louis XIV's marriage with the Infanta having been 
definitely postponed until the spring, it had been decided 
that the Court should spend the winter in Provence, and 
accordingly, on 7 October, it left Bordeaux and pro- 
ceeded by easy stages to Toulouse, where it arrived a 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 179 

week later. The Cardinal, of course, remained at 
Saint- Jean-de-Luz, to discuss with the Spanish plenipo- 
tentiaries the last clauses of the Treaty of the Pyrenees, 
which was finally signed on 7 November ; but his con- 
fidant Bartet accompanied the Court and did not fail to 
notify his Eminence of all that happened during the 
journey. 

" The King," he writes, " has found means to play 
cards all the way from Bordeaux. On the second day, 
he quitted the Queen's coach and entered that occupied 
by the Comtesse de Soissons and Madame d'Uzes. They 
contrived a table, on which they played high enough to 
lose three or four hundred pistoles. Up to this time, 
the loss is not the ladies' ; it is the King who loses." 

And again : 

"The King has resumed his relations with the 
countess ; he has recommenced to talk and laugh with 
her, so that matters are progressing as well as one could 
desire. They dined every day in the coach without 
leaving it. The Comte de Soissons has also resumed 
with the King his former manner of paying court to 
him. The servants and those about them are certain 
that things are going from good to better." 

And then, in a third report : 

"The King lives on such good terms with M. and 
Madame de Soissons that nothing could possibly be 
better. His Majesty entertained them, three days since, 
with a ball and a play, and afterwards they partook of 
midianoche 1 together, having passed more than three 
hours in conversation, perhaps of things past rather than 
of those of the future." 

1 Medianocbe was a meat supper eaten at midnight on fast-days. It 
was a custom which had been introduced into France from Spain. There 
was considerable diversity of opinion among the devout as to its lawfulness. 



180 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Bartet adds that he has exhorted the countess to make 
even greater efforts to attach the King to her than those 
which she had employed " previous to the storm 
raised by her sister"; that he has had occasion to 
reproach her with a lack of warmth in her manner 
towards his Majesty, which has caused him (Bartet) 
" inconceivable anxiety," and that though he hopes for 
the best, the fact that he has once witnessed his 
Majesty escape from the lady's hands "into those less 
merciful," makes him a trifle dubious as to the ultimate 
issue. He concludes by urging that the countess should 
be appointed dame d^honneur to the future Queen. 

From all of which it will be gathered that Mazarin, 
who, in his memorable despatch to the King, had ex- 
pressed such righteous horror at the possibility of Marie 
Mancini " assuming a position which would dishonour 
her " and imperilling the wedded happiness of the 
Infanta, had not the smallest objection in the world to 
seeing her elder sister playing the same role, if thereby 
his own ends might be served. 

In Bartet's reports to the Cardinal, Anne of Austria 
appears in a far from favourable light. " The Queen," 
he writes, " does not know herself for joy at the renewal 
of the King's relations with the Comtesse de Soissons. 
1 believe that she will be still more pleased if the news 
flies to Brouage, where it will doubtless soon arrive." 

It would appear that the Queen's horror of the mis- 
alliance which her son had contemplated was such that 
she was ready to welcome every means whereby he 
might be weaned from so disastrous a step, and even 
the taking of a mistress on the eve of his marriage was 
regarded by her with complacency, since it seemed to 
afford a kind of guarantee against any revival of his 
passion for Marie Mancini. For that unfortunate girl, 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 181 

Anne had conceived the most violent aversion, and 
Bartet's belief that the news of the rapprochement be- 
tween the King and the countess would soon reach 
Brouage proved well founded, for the Queen, with a re- 
finement of cruelty, directed Madame de Soissons to 
inform her sister of the fact, a command which that lady 
joyfully obeyed. 

Poor Marie was in despair on learning that the first 
result of her generous renunciation had been to pave 
the way for the triumph of her detested sister, and 
wrote forthwith to the Cardinal. 

Marie Mancini to the Cardinal. 

" Although I wrote two days ago to your Eminence, 
I cannot prevent myself from troubling you again, to 
tell you of all the grief I am suffering, and you can form 
some idea as to whether I have reason. The Comtesse 
de Soissons has written to me and informed me that the 
King has done her the honour to converse with her as 
he did formerly, and that she believes that I have 
already heard this news, since the King had told her 
that he had already written to me himself. These are 
the very words of the countess's letter. 

" Your Eminence can see by that, that, even in this 
century of ours, there are Job's comforters. But, since, 
by obeying you, I have afforded her reason for offering 
me these condolences, I ask of you two things : one, to 
prevent them making mock of me, and the other, to 
remove me out of reach of their railleries, by marrying 
me speedily, which I very humbly implore you to do." 

This letter caused Mazarin profound uneasiness. If 
Marie, goaded to fury by the taunts of the Gomtesse de 
Soissons, were to break her resolution so far as to com- 



1 82 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

plain to the King, and the latter were to discover that 
the countess's letter had been written by order of the 
Queen, the result would be exceedingly unpleasant ; 
and it might very well happen that his task would have 
to be begun all over again. He, therefore, determined to 
raise a new barrier between the lovers by acceding to his 
niece's request to find a husband for her without delay. 

At the beginning of November, Ondedei, Bishop of 
Frejus, arrived at Brouage. He was the bearer of the 
most affectionate messages from Mazarin, who assured 
his niece that her happiness was his chief consideration, 
and that he was desirous of doing everything in his 
power to further her wishes in regard to Prince Charles 
of Lorraine. At the same time, he was instructed to tell 
her that this project presented great difficulties, and that 
her uncle had found a far more suitable husband for her 
in the person of the Constable Colonna, already men- 
tioned, whom he was most anxious that she should 
accept. The bishop hastened to add that, of course, the 
Cardinal left her perfectly free to decide the matter for 
herself, nothing being further from his intention than to 
force her into a marriage contrary to her inclinations. 
Marie refused even to consider the matter ; and, though 
Ondedei remained some days at Brouage, and had 
several lengthy conversations with the girl, with the 
object of impressing upon her the advantages of the 
Colonna marriage, he was unable to alter her decision. 
On his departure, he carried away with him the following 
letter for the Cardinal : — 

Marie Mancini to the Cardinal. 

"November 1659, Brouage. 

" Monseigneur, — I have several things to tell your 
Eminence regarding the proposal which M. de Frejus 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 183 

has made to me on your behalf. . . . M. de Frejus will 
be able to explain my feelings to your Eminence better 
than I can express them ; but, above all, I beg you to 
be persuaded that I leave absolutely to him [Mazarin] 
what relates to myself, and am prepared to do everything 
he may wish. Nevertheless, I am obliged to tell you 
that I could not be happy at Rome, and that I might 
even render the person who married me unhappy, for it 
would be impossible for me to accustom myself to the 
way of living in that country. Let not your Eminence 
imagine that I have other reasons for remaining in 
France. If an alliance with the Prince of Lorraine 
cannot be arranged, as I am aware that it presents many 
obstacles, let your Eminence choose whoever he may 
approve of, gentleman or prince, provided that it be 
soon. That is all I ask of him, since I am beginning to 
grow very weary of this place. 

" Monseigneur de Frejus will be able to inform you 
better of the state in which he finds me, and, if you 
were to see me sometimes, I should arouse your 
compassion." 1 

The Conferences with Spain terminated on 1 2 Novem- 
ber, and, the following day, Mazarin started for Toulouse 
to rejoin the Court, where he arrived on the 22nd. 
The Bishop of Frejus arrived a few days later and 
informed the Cardinal of the result of his mission to 
Brouage, laying stress on the state of exasperation into 
which the King's relations with the Comtesse de Soissons 
had thrown Marie. He counselled the Cardinal to 
endeavour to pacify her without delay, if he desired to 
avoid some awkward scandal. 

On the other hand, Mazarin had discovered, on his 

1 Published by Lucien Perey, " Le Roman du Grand Roi." 



i8 4 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

arrival at Toulouse, that the intimacy between the King 
and the Comtesse de Soissons was more apparent than 
real ; so much so indeed that he began to fear that his 
Majesty was dissimulating. He, therefore, spoke to 
him of Marie in very affectionate and sympathetic terms, 
adding that it would, perhaps, be as well for Louis to 
assure her himself of his remembrance and regard. 
Then he wrote to his niece a soothing letter, informing 
her that "the person for whom she had the utmost 
esteem [the King] " had charged him to assure her that 
nothing was capable of making him change, whatever 
people might say or write to the contrary, on the ground 
of appearances which had no foundation. He also 
promised not to press the Colonna marriage, "although," 
he adds, " I know that the Constable Colonna, head of 
a family so illustrious, so accomplished and so handsome 
a prince, with a rent-roll of two hundred thousand 
crowns, is assuredly one of the most brilliant matches 
possible to find, and Cardinal Colonna, his uncle, has 
written to me several times, soliciting the marriage with 
great eagerness, since he prefers it to all others." 

As it had been decided that the Court should remain 
in the South until after Louis XIV's marriage with 
the Infanta, Mazarin judged it safe to put an end to 
Marie's exile, and, accordingly, gave directions for his 
nieces to return to Paris, whither they set out at the 
end of December. Scarcely had they started, how- 
ever, when the poor Cardinal had a terrible fright, 
for the King, growing weary of the monotony of the 
provinces, suddenly announced his intention of passing 
the rest of the winter in Paris. Mazarin was in the 
utmost consternation, for, if his Majesty were to carry 
out his resolution, he did not doubt that all his 
work would be undone in a very short time. Happily 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 185 

for his peace of mind, troubles arose at Aix and 
Marseilles, and provided him with a specious pretext for 
persuading the King to remain in Provence. 

During their journey to Paris, Hortense and Mari- 
anne both fell ill, and, in consequence, the little party 
did not reach the capital until the end of January, where 
their arrival was announced by the rhyming chronicler 
Loret in the following verses : — 

"... Les illustres Mancines 
Du Louvre a present citadines, 

Jeudi, dans la maison du Roi, 

Arriverent en bel arroi. 

Les trois pucelles triomphantes 

Qui valent vraiment les Infantes, 

Mademoiselle Mancini 

Dont le merite est infini : 

A savoir l'illustre Marie, 

Qui, sans aucune flatterie, 

Fait voir un coeur place des mieux, 

Et digne du destin des dieux." 1 

The Cardinal had given orders for his nieces to 
take up their quarters at the Palais-Mazarin ; but, 
for some reason, at the last moment, these were counter- 
manded, and poor Marie had, in consequence, to return 
to her old apartments at the Louvre, where every object 
served to remind her of the lover who had spent so 
many hours there with her. To add to the bitterness of 
her regrets, the portraits of the Infanta seemed to 
be everywhere, and the few ladies whose visits her uncle 
had authorized her to receive could talk of nothing else 
but the approaching marriage. 

The ratification of the Treaty of the Pyrenees 

1 "La Muse Historique," i February 1660. 



1 86 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

(23 January 1660) was celebrated everywhere by public 
rejoicings, and Marie was compelled, by the Cardinal's 
orders, to assist at the Te Deum at Notre-Dame, 
while, the same evening, she attended a grand display of 
fireworks at the hotel of Marechal de l'Hopital, Gover- 
nor of Paris. " I could not prevent myself from 
reflecting," she writes in her Memoirs, "how dearly I 
had paid for this peace over which all showed so 
much joy, and no one thought that, but for the sacrifice 
I had made, the King would perhaps have refused 
to allow his marriage to be accomplished." However, 
in the midst of these trying circumstances, the girl 
showed much strength of character, her natural pride 
coming to her aid and enabling her to disguise the 
bitterness of her feelings. 

If Marie had hoped to find some liberty in Paris, 
she had counted without her uncle. The Cardinal's 
orders did not permit his nieces to see more than a very 
limited number of people, and their vigilant gouvernante 
took care that they should not be infringed. His 
Eminence was anxious, above all things, that the young 
ladies' conduct should provide no material for gossip, and 
he regulated most minutely everything which concerned 
them. 

"They must conduct themselves with discretion in 
Paris," he writes to Madame de Venel, " for many 
people will keep a close watch on the behaviour of my 
nieces. I am perfectly willing for them to amuse 
themselves, but in such a way that no one can find 
anything to babble about. As for their visiting, they 
must go, on their arrival, to see the Queen of England, 1 
and pay her a visit once a month. They must also visit 
from time to time Madame de Carignan and Madame 
1 Henrietta Maria, widow of Charles I. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 187 

dc Vendome, and be careful to caress my great-nephews ; 
and Madame d'Angouleme the younger, who is the 
friend of our family and very virtuous, Madame de 
Villeroi, and Madame de Crequi. And I do not wish 
that my nieces should go to the play, unless in the 
company of one of the last-mentioned ladies. 

" I do not doubt that my nieces will be very satisfied 
with the manner in which Madame Colbert will treat 
them, for, besides the affection which she has for my 
family, they may derive much profit from her con- 
versation. I shall be very pleased to learn that the said 
lady is often with my nieces, when they will act as they 
should, if they pay her great attention, with which I 
shall be very pleased." 

Poor Marie's dejection continued, and the prospect 
of being compelled to assist at the fetes in honour of 
the approaching marriage, preparations for which were 
being made on all sides, did not tend to promote a more 
cheerful frame of mind. At the beginning of March, 
she received a letter from her uncle, enclosing one from 
the King, to which the Cardinal directed her to reply. 
His Majesty's letter was couched in coldly conventional 
terms, and the girl did not doubt that it was the 
outcome of a plot hatched between the Queen, the 
Cardinal, and the Comtesse de Soissons to show her 
that Louis's love for her was dead. To Mazarin she 
replied : — 

Marie Mancini to the Cardinal. 

"March 1660. 

" Monseigneur, — I am in receipt of the letter which 
your Eminence has done me the honour to write to me, 
and I do not intend to fail to obey your orders in 
despatching an answer to the letter which you have sent 



1 88 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

me. I assure you that it is conceived in the terms 
which you would desire. What troubles me, are the 
reports which are going about, and which cause me to 
doubt greatly whether I possess the honour of his [the 
King's] friendship. 

"... I look forward with great impatience to the 
month of May, when I hope to have the honour of 
seeing you, and expressing to you my gratitude for all 
your kindness." 

Some days later, Marie received another letter from 
Louis XIV, enclosed, like the first, in one from her 
uncle ; and this time she replied to it without sending 
the letter to the Cardinal. But the King's letter caused 
her nothing but pain, since all that she heard confirmed 
her in the belief that he was paying the most assiduous 
court to the Comtesse de Soissons, while, at the same 
time, expressing some impatience at the delays to which 
his marriage was being subjected. Her only desire now 
was to awaken, in her turn, Louis's jealousy and marry 
before him. 

All the ladies of Paris were now busily engaged in 
selecting the toilettes which they intended to wear at 
the festivities which would follow the return of Louis 
XIV and his bride to their capital. While awaiting the 
Cardinal's orders respecting those which he desired for 
his nieces on this auspicious occasion — for Mazarin, as 
we have said, regulated everything which concerned 
them — Madame de Venel caused all the costly gowns 
which the girls had left in Paris on their departure for 
La Rochelle to be laid out for their inspection. One day, 
on entering her room, Marie found a particularly 
dazzling confection spread out upon her bed, and, on 
catching sight of it, burst into a passion of tears. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 189 

Neither Madame de Venel nor Hortense, who were 
both present at the time, understood the cause of her 
grief; but when the gouvernante had retired, Hortense 
endeavoured to calm her sister and inquired why she 
was weeping so bitterly. " The last time that I wore 
that gown," replied Marie, " he [the King] said to me : 
* That toilette becomes you ravishingly, my Queen I ' 
And, the next day, she informed Madame de Venel that 
nothing could induce her ever to wear the gown in 
question again. 

The young girls grew very weary of the monotonous 
and secluded life which their uncle's orders compelled 
them to lead, and complained bitterly to Madame de 
Venel, who, in her turn, lamented in her letters to 
Mazarin the ill-humour of her charges. She was also 
much exercised in her mind at Marianne's constant 
demands for money. " Mile. Marianne, if she were a 
preacher, would never preach, save to beg for money," 
she writes. l( Besides what she has had from your 
Eminence since we arrived here, I have often given her 
a pistole, and sometimes two." The money, it would 
appear, was lost at the card-table. 

The Cardinal was very angry with Marianne ; but a 
letter which he received from that young lady, or rather 
the postscript thereof, completely disarmed him. 

Marianne to the Cardinal. 
"Paris, the 13th of the month of April 1660. 

" Monseigneur, — It is a long while since I have done 
myself the honour of writing to your Eminence ; but 
that was from fear of troubling you, for you have so 
many affairs to attend to that I believed you would not 
do me the honour to read my letters. I shall experience 



i 9 o FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

the greatest conceivable joy when the marriage is con- 
cluded, for I hope soon to have the honour of seeing 
the Queen and your Eminence, whom I await with 
great impatience. I beg of you to often recall to mind 
Marianne de Mancini. 

" P.S. — Monseigneur, — As Madame de Venel refuses 
to give me any money without your Eminence's orders, 
I entreat you to tell her to do so, since I am greatly in 
need of it. I am dying of fear lest my pockets may 
be lined with the skin of the devil, for the cross always 
escapes from them. 1 I believe that those of my sisters 
are not more blessed than mine, as they are scarcely 
richer than myself. I offer for you in all my letters the 
same prayer as in this one, which is that I may always 
retain your affection, etc. 

His Eminence, we are assured, laughed till the tears 
ran down his cheeks over the idea of pockets lined 
with the devil's skin ; the Queen was equally amused, 
and the request of the audacious Marianne was promptly 
granted. 

One of the few diversions which Mazarin permitted his 
nieces was that of taking an occasional constitutional in 
the garden of the Tuileries, always, it is needless to say, 
escorted by Madame de Venel. The Cardinal had also 
given instructions that they were to go very simply 
dressed and masked, as he did not wish them to excite 
attention. At first, Marie had taken but little pleasure 
in these promenades, and had often excused herself, on 
one plea or another, from accompanying her sisters ; 
but, on a sudden, she began to evince quite an affection 
for the Tuileries and was often the first to propose a 
walk there. The Argus-eyed Madame de Venel quickly 
1 The pistole bore on its reverse side the cross of Savoy. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 191 

perceived that this change had coincided with the 
appearance in the gardens of a handsome young man of 
distinguished appearance, who seemed to regard Mile. 
Marie with rather more attention than was perhaps quite 
consistent with good breeding, without, however, ventur- 
ing to address her. Nor was it long before she made the 
further discovery that the gentleman in question was 
none other than that very Prince Charles of Lorraine to 
whom Marie had so earnestly begged her uncle to marry 
her in preference to the Constable Colonna. 

Thereupon, the gouvemante, to the intense disgust of 
her charges, was forthwith seized with a diplomatic 
illness, which made it impossible for her to leave her 
room, and, in consequence, for the young ladies to visit 
the Tuileries for some days. Madame de Venel, of 
course, employed the interval in writing to Mazarin, 
to acquaint him with this new development and to ask 
for instructions. The same courier carried to the 
Cardinal a letter from Marie, bitterly complaining of 
the conduct of Madame de Venel, who would not 
permit her to go out, and whose ill-humour, she de- 
clared, " occasioned her more suffering than his Emin- 
ence could possibly imagine." The writer concluded 
by asserting that " her only hope of escaping these 
mortifications, and of ending the torment to which she 
was at present subjected, lay in his Eminence's return." 

To Madame de Venel's astonishment, the Cardinal 
seemed inclined to ignore the attentions of Prince 
Charles of Lorraine, and that prince, in default of 
obtaining permission from the gouvernante to visit her 
charges, continued to follow them so assiduously in 
their walks and drives that soon all Paris was talking 
of it. 



CHAPTER X 

Journey of Philip IV and the Infanta to the frontier — Indifference of 
Louis XIV to the preparations for his marriage — Letters of the King 
to the Infanta — Her reply — The marriage by procuration — Portrait 
of Maria Theresa — The King's present to his bride — Interview 
between the King of Spain and Anne of Austria at the He des 
Faisans — Interview between the two kings — Marriage of Louis XIV 
and Maria Theresa at Saint-Jean-de-Luz — Marie Mancini and Prince 
Charles of Lorraine — Letter of Marie to the Cardinal after the 
marriage of the King — Louis XIV makes a pilgrimage of love to 
La Rochelle and Brouage — Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, becomes 
the rival of his nephew for the hand of Marie Mancini — Intrigue of 
Mazarin to excite the King's jealousy against Prince Charles of 
Lorraine and Marie — Visit of the Cardinal's nieces to Fontainebleau 
— Icy reception of Marie by the King — Her grief and mortifica- 
tion — Mazarin objects to his niece's marriage with Prince Charles, and 
urges her to accept the Constable Colonna — She again refuses. 

AT the conclusion of the Conferences at the beginning 
of November 1659^ Mazarin had pushed on the 
arrangements for the royal marriage with all possible 
expedition. Owing, however, to the feeble health of 
Philip IV, which rendered a journey to the frontier so 
late in the year out of the question, it had been found 
necessary to postpone the happy event till the following 
April. Further delay occurred, owing to the leisurely 
manner in which the Spaniards made their preparations; 
and it was the end of March before the King of Spain 
and his daughter left Madrid. 

So soon as Louis XIV was informed that his bride- 
elect had set out upon her journey, he quitted Avignon, 

192 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 193 

where the Court then was, and approached the frontier 
to receive her. But Philip IV, who deemed it indispen- 
sable to his own and his daughter's dignity to travel 
with a retinue which extended for six leagues and 
required four thousand sumpter-horses and mules to 
transport their baggage, 1 moved with unconscionable 
slowness, halting at various towns to allow his loyal 
subjects to entertain him with bull-fights, masquerades, 
and other amusements, so that it was not until 3 June 
that Fontarabia was reached, some six weeks later than 
had been originally intended. 2 

Louis XIV evinced a most profound indifference to 
the preparations which were being made for his wedding, 
save so far as regarded the horses, equipages, and 
liveries. In those which concerned the Infanta, he 
seemed to take not the faintest interest. However, 
since it was necessary to express to his fiande the joy he 
was supposed to feel at her approach, he obtained per- 
mission to write to her, and despatched the following 
letter. It will be observed that he addresses the princess 
as if she were already Queen. 

1 "The wedding-garments of the bride-elect, twenty-three complete 
attires, were contained in twelve trunks lined and covered with crimson 
velvet, the hinges, the locks, and the keys being of silver ; twenty other 
trunks covered with russia leather contained the linen. There were 
also six trunks lined with crimson satin, their hinges, bars, and locks 
being gold enamelled. Two of them contained presents for the Due 
d'Anjou {Monsieur), and the others presents to be distributed among the 
ladies of the French Court. No less than fifty sumpter-horses were 
required to carry the articles for the Infanta's toilette, and twenty-five 
more for exquisite hangings and tapestry. In addition to all this, there 
were special robes and liveries for the entry into Paris, a sedan-chair 
adorned with silver, worked like Flanders lace, and for charity and other 
gifts the Infanta had 50,000 pistoles." — Bingham's " Marriages of the 
Bourbons." 

2 According to a letter in the Thurloe State Papers, which is cited by 
Bingham, the wedding had been originally fixed for 20 April, and the 
Court had intended to be in Paris again by the end of May. 



i 9 4 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Louis XIV to the Infanta. 

" Auch, 25 April 1660. 

" I take advantage, with the greatest conceivable 
pleasure, of the permission which has been given me to 
write to your Majesty, and to assure her myself of all 
the passion I feel for Her. I envy the happiness which 
this gentleman [the bearer of the letter] will have in 
beholding her sooner than myself, and although I have 
commanded him to represent clearly to your Majesty to 
what degree I shall esteem myself happy when I can 
explain to her my feelings by word of mouth, I very 
much doubt whether he will succeed in acquitting him- 
self as I should wish. In short, my impatience is 
greater than I can possibly express, and, without the 
consolation that I have in seeing that we are drawing 
nearer to each other, nothing could prevent me from 
coming to her in person. In the meantime, my favourite 
conversation is to speak of the perfections of your 
Majesty and to listen to the accounts which I hear of 
them from all parts. I am entirely your Majesty's. 

"L." 

From her childhood, Maria Theresa, notwithstanding 
the fact that France and Spain were at war, had always 
regarded Louis XIV as her future husband, 1 and the 
portraits which she had seen of him, and the glowing 
terms in which the Marechal de Gramont had depicted 
his young master, when he came to Madrid to demand 
her hand, had contributed to arouse in her a feeling 
which was hardly distinguishable from love. Knowing 
nothing of the Mancini affair, she believed that the 

1 According to Madame de Motteville, her mother had told the 
princess that to be happy she must either be Queen of France or a nun. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 195 

above letter expressed his Majesty's true sentiments 
towards her, and was duly enchanted with it. 

Soon after the Court arrived at Saint-Jean-de-Luz, 
where the marriage was to be celebrated, we find Louis 
again writing to his bride-elect. 

Louis XIV to the Infanta. 

" Saint- Jean-de-Luz. 
" Seeing your Majesty approach and my happiness 
with her, I cannot contain my joy, and, although it is 
impossible to express what I feel, I do not hesitate to 
send to your Majesty the Comte de Noailles, Captain 
of my Guards, in whom I have every confidence, to tell 
you that my delight is beyond all expression. I am 
enchanted to think that I am on the eve of being able to 
assure you of this in person. I desire it with a passion 
which has no equal, and which, in a word, corresponds 
to the merit of your Majesty. " L." 

To this letter the princess hastened to reply, though 
in more measured terms. 

The Infanta to Louis XIV. 

" Fontarabia, the 3rd of June 1660. 
" Seigneur, — I have received the letter which your 
Majesty has sent me by the Comte de Noailles, accom- 
panied by the demonstrations of attachment and joy 
which our nearer approach occasions your Majesty, and 
which this nobleman has assured me he has remarked in 
you. I have received this assurance with all the defer- 
ence due to the gallantry of your Majesty and de- 
manded by the good fortune of having obtained so 
great a favour. I shall endeavour always to deserve 
it, by conforming to the wishes which your Majesty 



196 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

imposes on me, desiring that God will grant you every 

felicity such as I desire. ,, A/T ^ „ 

3 " Maria Theresa. 

On 3 June 1660, the day on which the Spanish 
Court reached Fontarabia, the marriage by procuration 
was celebrated. The ceremony was performed by the 
Bishop of Pampeluna, Don Luis de Haro acting as 
proxy for the King of France, with the Bishop of 
Frejus as best man. The bride wore a kind of close- 
fitting white cap, which entirely concealed her hair, and a 
white satin gown embroidered with gold and precious 
stones, which, says Madame de Motteville, a witness 
of the ceremony, " made her resemble those Spanish 
Madonnas whose figures are invisible beneath the 
profusion and stiffness of their robes woven with gold 
and silver, and whose heads are buried in enormous 
ruffs." The chronicler, however, adds that her beauty 
triumphed over her unsightly dress, " an infallible proof 
of its greatness," and proceeds to give us a detailed 
description of the princess's charms, from which it 
would appear that Maria Theresa must have been a very 
ordinary-looking young woman indeed, with fine blue 
eyes and an abundance of fair hair, but with a diminutive 
figure, heavy features, a dull white complexion, and bad 
teeth. 

From other sources we learn that, though of a 
virtuous and kindly disposition, she entirely lacked the 
faculty of pleasing, and was gauche, timid, ignorant, and 
bigoted to the last degree. In short, a greater contrast 
in every way to poor Marie Mancini it would have been 
impossible to conceive. 

On the following day (Friday, 4 June), Louis XIV 
sent his wedding-present to his bride, accompanied by 
the following letter : — 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 197 

Louis XIV to the Queen. 

" Saint-Jean-de-Luz, 4 June 1660. 
" To receive at the same time a letter from your 
Majesty and the news of the celebration of our marriage, 
and to be on the eve of enjoying the happiness of seeing 
you, are assuredly subjects of indescribable joy to me. 
My cousin, the Due de Crequi, First Gentleman of my 
Chamber, whom I send expressly to your Majesty, will 
communicate to you the sentiments of my heart, in 
which she will observe always more and more an extreme 
impatience to be able to tell her of them myself. He 
will present her also with some trifles from me." 

These trifles consisted of a large casket, of which 
la Grande Mademoiselle has left us a description. It 
was of sandal-wood inlaid with gold, and contained 
everything that one could possibly imagine in the shape 
of jewels in gold and diamonds, such as watches, gloves, 
mirrors, patch-boxes ; little scent-bottles of all kinds ; 
cases in which to put scissors and tooth-picks ; minia- 
tures to place in a bed ; crosses, chaplets, rings, bracelets ; 
a smaller casket, in which were pearls, diamond earrings, 
and a box for the crown jewels. " In short," says 
Mademoiselle ', " one could not easily conceive that a 
present so magnificent and gallant had ever been seen 
before." 1 

The same day there was a private meeting between 
Philip IV and Anne of Austria, who had not seen one 
another for forty-five years, on the He des Faisans, where 
the Conferences had been held. 2 The Queen hastened 

1 " Memoires de Mile, de Montpensier." 

2 The He des Faisans was a little island in the Bidassoa, but a few 
hundred feet long ; the northern half belonged to France, the southern to 
Spain. 



198 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

forward with open arms to embrace her brother, who, 
however, received her in the most ceremonious manner 
and merely pressed her hands, though he appeared to be 
no less moved than Anne. A little later, Louis XIV 
arrived on horseback, accompanied by some of his 
gentlemen. He came incognito, and did not enter the 
room where their Majesties and his bride were con- 
versing, but remained at the door, and, " thrusting his 
head between the shoulders of Don Luis de Haro and 
the Cardinal, for a good quarter of an hour regarded the 
Infanta, who, at a sign from Don Luis de Haro, cast 
her eyes on the King of France and turned pale." As 
Louis XIV was there incognito, the Spanish King did 
not salute him and pretended to take him for some 
private French gentleman. But he remarked, with a 
smile, to his sister : " Tengo lingo Memo ! " (" I have a 
handsome son-in-law.") When the Infanta embarked 
on the Bidassoa to return to Fontarabia with her father, 
Louis accompanied the barge, riding along the bank, hat 
in hand, followed by a number of French and Spanish 
nobles. 

Two days later (6 June), the two kings met officially, 
for the purpose of swearing to observe the Treaty of 
the Pyrenees. They entered the conference chamber, 
followed by the grandees of their respective realms, 
and, after hearing the Treaty read, knelt down at a 
small table opposite one another, with a copy of the 
Gospels between them, Louis being on French territory, 
Philip on Spanish, 1 and took the oath to respect it, 
On rising from their knees, they embraced, and, crucifix 

1 With a punctilious regard for diplomatic etiquette, the building erected 
for the Conferences had been placed exactly in the centre of the island, and, 
while the northern part of the principal apartment was French territory, 
the southern was Spanish ground. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 199 

in hand, promised eternal friendship. Then Mazarin 
went to the window and waved his hand, whereupon 
some cannon stationed by the French on the northern 
bank of the river fired three discharges, which were 
answered by those of the Spaniards on the opposite 
shore. 

On the morrow, the whole of the two Courts met at 
the lie des Faisans, when Philip IV, after an affect- 
ing leave-taking with his daughter, formally handed her 
over to her husband, and took his departure for Madrid 
with the same pomp as he had come, while the French 
Court returned to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, where on 9 June 
the second marriage ceremony took place. 

Between the house occupied by Anne of Austria, 
where the Infanta had passed the last two days, and the 
church of Saint-Jean a gallery had been erected, a little 
higher than the street, and along this the royal party 
made their way. All were on foot. First came the 
Prince de Conti, accompanied by two gentlemen, bear- 
ing blue wands covered with fleurs-de-lys ; Mazarin, 
in full canonicals, followed ; after the Cardinal walked 
the King, who was dressed in cloth of gold covered 
with black lace, and wore no jewels ; and behind his 
Majesty came the bride, conducted by Monsieur, while 
her chevalier d'konneur, M. de Bournonville, walked on 
her left hand. " She wore a petticoat of violet velvet 
covered with little fleurs-de-lys, a royal mantle of the 
same colour also covered with little fleurs-de-lys, the 
facings being of white cloth edged with black ermine. 
The royal mantle extended, without exaggeration, ten 
ells ; Mile, de Valois held one corner, Mile. d'Alencon 
the other, 1 and the middle, which, as I have said, was 

1 Miles, de Valois and d'Alencon were the younger daughters of 
Gaston d'Orleans, 



200 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

ten ells in length, was carried by the Princesse de 
Carignan. All the princesses wore veils, which stretched 
about four ells, on their heads ; they were of black 
crepon, and their ends were held by three gentlemen. 
The Queen-Mother followed ; her trailing veil was 
carried by the Comtesse de Flers. Mademoiselle came 
next, and M. de Mancini held her veil." Throughout 
the procession to the church and the marriage ceremony, 
which was performed by the Bishop of Bayonne, the 
young Queen wore a gold crown, so heavy that her 
dame d'atours (Mistress of the Robes), the Duchesse de 
Navailles, stood behind her holding it, lest its weight 
should prove too much for her. At the conclusion of 
the ceremony, medals of gold and silver bearing the 
portraits of the King and Queen were distributed 
amongst the people. 

From the naive confidences of Madame de Motte- 
ville, it would appear that, for the rest of that memor- 
able day, Louis XIV showed himself as much charmed 
with his bride as if the match had been one of inclina- 
tion, instead of policy ; while, during the days which 
followed, " the Queen testified towards the King the 
most lively affection, and took pleasure in revealing her 
passion to the eyes of all." 

While Louis XIV was spending his honeymoon at 
Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Marie Mancini, in Paris, had be- 
come the object of the most marked attentions on 
the part of Prince Charles of Lorraine. Madame de 
Choisy, mother of the famous abbe of that name, and 
a lady who, according to Mile, de Montpensier, was 
"very much given to match-making," had suggested 
the match to the prince, and, having taken counsel with 
a certain Abbe Buti, a very adroit Italian, whom Marie 




>a^~-^lllll!l 
PRINCE CHARLES (AFTERWARDS CHARLES V) OF LORRAINE 



!'!l!llJ!illl!llll!lllilllllllllllM 

From an engraving by Nanteu 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 201 

employed occasionally in her service, the latter, "notwith- 
standing the watchfulness of Madame de Venel, found 
means to acquaint her with the intentions of Prince 
Charles." 1 

Marie received these overtures very favourably ; 
indeed, as her latest biographer very justly remarks, 
she would have been less than a woman had she be- 
haved otherwise. At the moment when the return of 
Louis XIV and his bride was about to expose her to 
the sneers or compassion of the Court, a handsome 
young prince, heir to a great name and a great fortune, 
had become a suitor for her hand. Nor was this her 
only motive. " Mademoiselle," wrote Madame de Venel 
to the Cardinal, " desires to cause uneasiness to him 
who has occasioned her so much." One thought, in 
fact, possessed her mind : to be married before the 
arrival of the King ; to show her faithless lover that 
another had been ready and anxious to possess the 
tieasure which he had esteemed so lightly. 2 

An interview was arranged with the prince, and was 
quickly followed by others. Marie was delighted with 
the handsome face, the charming manners, and the in- 
telligence of her suitor ; all that she had heard of him 
was abundantly confirmed, and she felicitated herself on 
her acumen in having informed the Cardinal of her 
preference for him, even before she had made his 
acquaintance. But to affirm, as do M. Chantelauze and 
Arvede Barine, that she fell passionately in love, shows, 
we think, an inability to appreciate her character, and is, 
moreover, disproved by the sequel. 

The prince, on his side, seems to have become as 
completely fascinated as the King had been, though 

1 " Memoires du Marquis de Beauvau." 

2 Lucien Perey, " Le Roman du Grand Roi." 



202 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

how much of this was due to the lady's personal 
charms and how much to the renown with which the 
passion of Louis XIV had invested her is, of course, 
difficult to say. Any way, he neglected no opportunity 
of testifying his devotion, and Madame de Venel's post 
was, in consequence, very far from a sinecure. The 
gouvernante, needless to remark, kept the Cardinal in- 
formed of all that was happening ; but Mazarin sent no 
precise orders and appeared inclined to allow matters 
to take their course. 

It is probable that an alliance with the House of 
Lorraine would have been very favourably regarded by 
the Cardinal, had it not been for the fear that, in leaving 
Marie at the French Court, the King's passion might 
reawaken, in which case he could not doubt that the 
girl would use all her influence over Louis's mind to 
revenge herself upon the Minister who had thwarted 
her passion and her ambition. He determined, there- 
fore, to adopt a waiting policy, and to come to no 
definite decision on the matter until the King returned 
with his bride to Paris, when he would be better able 
to judge whether his niece might remain at the Court 
without danger. 

A few days after the royal marriage, that young lady 
wrote to her uncle. 

Marie Mancini to the Cardinal. 

"Paris, 20 June 1660. 

" Monseigneur, — 1 have experienced the greatest 
conceivable joy on learning that all is concluded, and 
that, in consequence, it will not be long before I have 
the happiness of seeing you. You can well understand 
that I have so many reasons to cause me to desire your 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 203 

return that it will be necessary for me to acquaint you 
with them in detail, after I have the pleasure of seeing 
you. I am well persuaded that after having established 
so gloriously the interests of France, you will think of 
those of the person in the world who is with the utmost 
sincerity yours," etc. etc. 

In spite of this letter, it must not be supposed that 
the marriage of Louis XIV had not occasioned the girl 
the keenest anguish. But, as we have already observed, 
pride with her was always stronger than love, and she 
was now feverishly impatient to obtain the Cardinal's 
consent to her marriage with Charles of Lorraine and 
have the affair publicly announced before the return of 
the Court to Paris. 

If Mazarin had for a moment flattered himself that 
the much-desired union with the Infanta had extin- 
guished the King's passion for Marie Mancini, and that, 
therefore, it would be safe to allow the latter to remain 
at the French Court, he was speedily undeceived. Their 
Majesties quitted Saint-Jean-de-Luz about the middle 
of June, and travelled towards Paris by easy stages, 
receiving in every town through which they passed the 
most enthusiastic demonstrations of loyalty and de- 
light. On reaching Bordeaux, Louis XIV suddenly 
announced his intention of leaving the two queens to 
continue their journey to Saint- Jean -d'Angely and 
going to pay a visit of three days to La Rochelle and 
Brouage. He desired, he said, to travel incognito, 
accompanied only by two or three of his gentlemen. 

The consternation of the Cardinal may be imagined. 
At the moment when he believed, or at least hoped, 
that the King was wholly occupied with his young bride, 



2o 4 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

and had no thought to spare for Marie, this fatal 
passion was so little extinguished that his Majesty- 
proposed to break his journey, in order to make a 
pilgrimage of love to those sacred spots which had 
witnessed the sufferings of his mistress ! And if such 
were now the feelings which possessed him, what would 
they be when he returned to Paris and found himself 
once more in the presence of his enchantress, and 
began to institute the inevitable comparisons between 
her grace, vivacity, and intelligence, and the gaucherie^ 
timidity, and ignorance of the Queen ! 

Anne of Austria was equally alarmed, but Louis had 
given his orders in a tone which did not admit of any 
opposition ; and the sole concession which Mazarin 
was able to obtain from him, in order to minimize the 
scandal which this romantic escapade could not fail to 
arouse at Court, was permission to accompany the 
King as far as La Rochelle, on the plea that, as he 
was governor of the country of Aunis, it would appear 
strange if he did not do the honours to his sovereign. 

Leaving the Cardinal at La Rochelle, to continue his 
journey to Paris, Louis proceeded to Brouage, accom- 
panied only by three young noblemen, of whom one 
was Philippe Mancini, but lately released from his im- 
prisonment at Brissac, which had been greatly prolonged 
by a foolish attempt to escape. 

The King stayed two days at Brouage, during which 
he made no effort to conceal the melancholy which 
oppressed him ; and Philippe wrote to Marie that his 
Majesty " wept much, as he walked by the sea in the 
evening ; that he remained there until very late at 
night, and sighed deeply." He added that the King 
had expressed a wish to occupy the same room in the 
chateau which had been allotted to her. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 205 

The immediate result of this escapade was that the 
Cardinal sent imperative orders to Colbert to cause his 
nieces to remove at once from the Louvre to the 
Palais-Mazarin, " since he did not deem it expedient 
that they should be lodged at the Louvre when the 
King and Queen arrived in Paris." 

Those young ladies looked forward to the arrival of 
the Court with very different feelings. Hortense and 
Marianne, the latter of whom had at Easter made her 
first communion, without, however, becoming any the 
more serious, to judge by the nonsense verses which she 
continued to address to her uncle, could talk of noth- 
ing but the coming festivities. Marie, on the other 
hand, anticipated the coming of the King with an ever- 
increasing dread, and could scarcely bear to visit the 
Louvre, " for fear that her countenance might betray 
her." 1 

To add to her anxieties, the Cardinal, though prodigal 
in promises, had as yet taken no steps in regard to the 
proposals of Prince Charles of Lorraine, who continued 
to pay her the most assiduous court. Since the romantic 
pilgrimage of the King to Brouage, the doubt which 
Mazarin had always entertained as to the wisdom of 
allowing his niece to remain at the French Court had 
given way to certainty, and he was now firmly resolved 
that the Constable Colonna, and no one else, should 
be her husband. In the meanwhile, the position of 
affairs in Paris had become much complicated, owing to 
the attitude of Prince Charles's uncle, the Duke of 
Lorraine, which provided the Cardinal with an excel- 
lent pretext for delay. 

This eccentric personage, who, according to the ex- 
pression of Voltaire, passed his life in losing his States 

1 Letter of Madame de Venel to Mazarin, 7 July 1660. 



206 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

and in levying troops in order to reconquer them, had 
shown himself on his accession to the ducal crown of 
Lorraine the implacable enemy of Louis XIII. He 
had given an asylum to Gaston d'Orleans, after that 
prince's conspiracy against Richelieu, and had induced 
him to marry his sister Marguerite, to the intense dis- 
gust of the King of France. Later, he allied himself 
with the Emperor Ferdinand II, and went about, at 
the head of a body of mercenaries, burning, pillaging, and 
committing all manner of atrocities. However, he did 
not remain faithful to his allies, who revenged themselves 
by luring him to Brussels, where he was arrested and 
conducted to Spain. A five years' imprisonment in the 
Castle of Toledo was terminated by the Treaty of the 
Pyrenees, which restored to him Lorraine, but gave the 
Duchy of Bar and the Clermontois to France ; and it 
was his anxiety to recover his lost dominions which led 
him to interfere in the affairs of his nephew and Marie 
Mancini. But let us listen to his biographer, the 
Marquis de Beauvau : — 

"We know the ill-will of Charles IV towards 
Prince Charles of Lorraine. Far from favouring his 
project (i.e. the marriage with Marie Mancini), he 
opposed it openly, loudly expressed his indignation 
against those who supported it, and went so far as to 
indulge in threats. Such a scandal could not fail to 
wound the feelings of the Cardinal. But the Duke 
sought to persuade him that he was only opposed to 
the marriage of his nephew, because he desired to espouse 
Mile, de Mancini himself, and despatched the Due de 
Guise to him to make a formal demand for her hand. 

" At the same time, in order to break off his nephew's 
commerce and his project of marriage, he proceeded to 
pay frequent visits to Marie de Mancini, and to employ 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 207 

every kind of cajolery and persuasion to induce her to 
believe that he proposed to marry her himself. 

"And, the better to win over Madame de Venel to his 
cause, he threw one day into her lap a jewel which she 
had refused to accept from his hand. On which, it 
happened that the lady, having dropped it into the 
knee-piece of her boot, it fell to the ground, and was 
discovered by a lackey, who profited thereby, since 
neither the Duke nor Madame de Venel cared to lay 
claim to it." 1 

Far from being discouraged by this rebuff, the Duke 
sent an ambassador to Madame de Venel, to inform her 
that the Cardinal had practically accorded him his 
niece's hand, and had promised him the restoration 
of his confiscated States, by way of a dowry — a state- 
ment which must have considerably astonished his 
Eminence, when it reached his ears ; that the only 
obstacle he feared was the aversion of the lady, which, 
however, he hoped to be able to overcome with the aid 
of the gouvemante y to whom he promised mountains and 
marvels, if she would consent to assist him. 

That discreet lady replied that she was much flattered 
by these proofs of his Highness's confidence, though 
deeply offended by the offers which accompanied them ; 
but that she could, of course, do nothing in the matter, 
since Mile, de Mancini was far too well-brought-up a 
young lady to regard any suitor, save with her uncle's 
eyes. And forthwith sent an account of the whole 
affair to the Cardinal. 

Charles IV was quite correct in his belief that Marie 
regarded him with aversion, for not only was he inter- 
fering with her plans in regard to his nephew, but he 
was himself, apart from his rank, very far from the 

1 " Memoires du Marquis de Beauvau." 



208 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

kind of suitor to appeal to a young girl of her tem- 
perament and education. He was fifty-six years of 
age, "with eyes like those of a cat," coarse in his 
tastes, coarse in his manner, and still coarser in his 
conversation ; while his matrimonial vagaries and in- 
numerable amours were the talk of Europe. He had 
married, en premieres noces, Nicole, eldest daughter of 
Henri le Bon, Duke of Lorraine, and it was through 
her that he had secured the ducal crown. Soon after- 
wards, however, he declared this union annulled, and 
married the beautiful and witty Beatrix de Cusane, 
Princesse de Cantecroix. It was only after the con- 
summation of this new marriage that Charles appealed 
to the Vatican to confirm the nullity of the first ; upon 
which the Princess Nicole solicited on her side the 
nullity of the second. The Pope decided in favour of 
Nicole, and excommunicated the Duke, who, however, 
ignored the Bull, and continued to live with the Princesse 
de Cantecroix, who followed him in all his travels and 
was surnamed his " femme de campagne?\ Nicole died in 
1657, but the Duke refused to ratify his marriage with 
Beatrix, and it was not until the latter lay on her death- 
bed that he consented to marry her by proxy. 1 

In spite of the discouraging reception accorded his 
ridiculous pretensions by Mile. Mancini, Charles IV 
continued to press his suit. " The Duke of Lorraine," 
writes Marie, "perceiving the intention of his nephew, 
and fearing that the marriage would not bring his 

1 This prince, some years later, became deeply enamoured of the daugh- 
ter of an apothecary, Marianne Pajot by name, who is described as a 
marvellous beauty, and the contract for a morganatic marriage was already 
drawn up, when Louis XIV, at the instance of the Duke's sister, the 
Duchesse d'Orleans, put an end to the romance, by causing the fair 
Marianne to be carried off and shut up in a monastery. Finally, at the 
age of sixty-two, the amorous Duke espoused Louise d'Aspremont, a 
maiden of thirteen summers, by whom, however, he had no children. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 209 

Eminence over to his [the Duke's] interests, and that, 
as the true successor of this prince, he might receive 
from the Cardinal advantages to the prejudice of the 
Duke, decided to forbid him absolutely to pay court to 
me, and took his place, without reflecting that, at his 
age, he was unable to fill it worthily, and that his 
persistence in following me to the Cours de la Reine 
and the Tuileries could not meet with the same success 
as the attentions of his nephew." 1 

Mazarin, who was of course kept informed of all 
these proceedings by Madame de Venel, must have 
smiled grimly, since he was fully determined in his own 
mind that neither uncle nor nephew should wed the 
girl. But though he gave no direct encouragement to 
either of the princes, he still allowed Marie to believe 
that he looked with favour upon the suit of the younger, 
foreseeing that Prince Charles's passion for his niece 
might ere long be turned to good account. 

Firmly resolved though he was to remove Marie for 
ever out of the King's path, by marrying her to the 
Constable Colonna, the Cardinal was fain to admit that 
the execution of his project offered serious difficulties. 
Marie, as we have seen, had rejected the proposed 
alliance in the strongest possible terms, and to attempt 
to force her into it would be worse than futile, as 
Louis XIV would most certainly interfere. A surer 
means, however, presented itself to the Minister's mind. 
The young King was intensely proud ; Marie was the 
same. Let Mazarin but once succeed in awakening 
Louis's anger and jealousy, by inducing him to believe 
that Marie had already found consolation for her 
blighted hopes in the love of Prince Charles of Lor- 
raine, and all would be easy. The King would treat 

1 " La Verite dans son jour." 



210 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

her with coldness and disdain in the presence of the 
whole Court. The girl, unaware of the cause, and 
bitterly humiliated at such conduct on the part of the 
sovereign by whom, but a few months before, her 
slightest wish had been so eagerly anticipated, would 
ask nothing better than to place half Europe between 
the Court of France and herself. Then her uncle 
would represent to her the objections to her marriage 
with Prince Charles of Lorraine and the advantages of 
the Colonna alliance ; and there could be little doubt 
what her decision would be. 

The plan was no sooner conceived than executed. 
The Comtesse de Soissons, who had come to Paris to 
give birth to a son, received her orders, and, on rejoin- 
ing the Court, lost no time in recounting to the King 
the minutest details regarding her sister and Prince 
Charles of Lorraine : their walks in the Tuileries, their 
drives on the Cours de la Reine, the devotion of the 
prince, the pronounced encouragement which his ad- 
vances had met with from the lady, and so forth ; and 
we may be very sure that the tale lost nothing in the 
telling. Anne of Austria, on her side, ably seconded 
the countess's efforts, and neglected nothing whereby 
the gossip of the capital concerning the lovers might 
reach her son's ears. The pride of the monarch re- 
volted ; however, he took steps to verify what was 
told him, but every one he questioned confirmed it, for 
appearances were in its favour. At length, on 13 July, 
the Court arrived at Fontainebleau, where it was to 
remain until the preparations for the solemn entry 
of the King and Queen into their capital were com- 
pleted. Louis XIV's first care on meeting the Cardinal 
was to inquire if it were true that his niece was to wed 
Prince Charles of Lorraine. Mazarin replied that the 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 211 

alliance was one which he greatly desired, and showed 
the King the letters he had received from Marie and 
Madame de Venel. Louis read them. " Cela est bien I " 
he observed coldly, as he handed them back, while a 
dark flush of anger mounted to his brow. He could 
no longer doubt that he was replaced ! He, the King 
of France ! " Few men allow themselves to be re- 
placed ; Louis XIV never allowed it, not through 
vanity, but through monarchical faith. To reign alone 
on the throne ; to reign alone in the hearts of those 
whom he honoured with his affection ; the one appeared 
to him as much a matter of divine right as the other." 1 
Was the greatest sovereign in the world to be exposed 
to the misadventures of vulgar lovers ? The very 
thought was intolerable ! 

Mazarin heard the words, marked the angry flush 
on his sovereign's brow, and, assured of the success of 
his scheme, returned to Paris, and ordered his nieces 
to proceed at once to Fontainebleau and salute their 
Majesties. 

Marie, as we may suppose, obeyed with the utmost 
reluctance. "I felt," she tells us, "that, in entering the 
presence of the King, I was about to reopen a wound 
which was not completely healed, and of which absence 
would have been better calculated to cure me." How- 
ever, there was no gainsaying the Cardinal's commands, 
and, on 22 July, she set out with her sisters for Fontaine- 
bleau, all three arrayed in superb toilettes, which their 
uncle had ordered for the occasion and the preparation 
of which had delayed their visit until this date. 

On their arrival, the girls were ushered into the 
presence of the King and Anne of Austria ; the young 
Queen was not present, having postponed all formal 

1 Arvede Barine, " Princesses et grandes dames : Marie Mancini." 



212 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

receptions until after her entry into Paris. Marie, as 
the eldest, was the first to advance to salute the Queen- 
Mother, in so painful a state of agitation that she 
scarcely dared to raise her eyes from the ground. On 
presenting herself before the King, however, she raised 
them involuntarily, and met those of Louis fixed upon 
her with a look so cold and contemptuous that she felt 
as if turned to stone. So overcome was she indeed, 
that she had scarcely strength to make the three curtseys 
prescribed by etiquette before retiring. 1 

But she was not to escape so easily. Just as she 
reached the door, the Queen-Mother, who had not 
failed to observe the icy reception which the King had 
accorded her, called her back, and, desirous of prolong- 
ing the punishment of the girl whose misplaced ambi- 
tion had occasioned the Cardinal and herself such 
torments of anxiety, began to felicitate her upon her ap- 
proaching marriage. By an heroic effort, the unhappy 
Marie succeeded in mastering her emotion, and answered 
that she was as yet in ignorance of her uncle's plans in 
regard to her future. The Queen would have ques- 
tioned her further, but Mazarin, who was present and 
feared that Anne was going too fast and might disclose 
their plot to its victim, created a diversion by beginning 
to jest with Marianne, and the subject was allowed to 
drop. At length, the girls withdrew, and Marie, has- 
tening to the apartment which had been allotted them, 
gave way to a passion of grief, which the sympathetic 
Hortense essayed vainly to calm. " I could not have 
imagined," she writes, " that his Majesty would have 
received me with such coldness and indifference, and 

1 The first immediately after saluting the Queen, the second in the 
middle of the room, and the last at the door. All the curtseys had to 
be performed while walking backwards, the lady kicking away her train 
as best she might. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 213 

I must acknowledge that the astonishment and mortifica- 
tion I experienced made me wish every moment to 
return to Paris." 1 

However, she was compelled to remain at Fontaine- 
bleau for some time longer, and to strive, as best she 
might, to conceal the grief and mortification which con- 
sumed her beneath a smiling countenance. This was no 
easy task, nor was it rendered any the easier by the con- 
duct of the Comtesse de Soissons, who took a malicious 
pleasure in rallying the poor girl on her low spirits when- 
ever the King happened to be within hearing. "You 
find the time pass slowly when you are away from Paris," 
she observed to her one day; "nor am I surprised, since 
you have left your gallant there." To which Marie, 
who entertained no doubt that her amiable sister was en- 
deavouring to embitter the King's mind against her, 
coldly replied : "That is possible, Madame"; a remark 
which appears to have still further alienated his Majesty. 

Louis XIV, indeed, felt the deepest resentment against 
her whom he had not yet succeeded in forgetting. He 
thought bitterly that at the very moment that he was 
making his romantic pilgrimage to Brouage, this woman 
whom he had so dearly loved was giving to another the 
heart which he had imagined to be his for ever. " In his 
first indignation he did not pause to reflect," remarks 
the lady's sympathetic biographer, Lucien Perey, " that 
his marriage had reduced Marie to despair. He did 
not make allowance for the height from which she had 
fallen, for the suffering and the irritation which she 
experienced on seeing these same courtiers, who, a year 
before, had treated her with the deference due to a 
queen, to-day rally her pitilessly or affect a compassion 
more humiliating still." 2 

1 " La Verite dans sans jour." a " Le Roman du Grand Roi." 



2i 4 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

The testimony of a trustworthy eye-witness shows us 
that, notwithstanding all her efforts, the luckless girl 
was quite unable to disguise her feelings : 

" She was beside herself with fury and despair ; she 
found that she had lost, at the same time, a very amiable 
lover and the most splendid crown in the world. A 
temperament less passionate than hers would have safe- 
guarded her from giving way to her feelings under such 
circumstances. As it was, she abandoned herself to 
rage and anger." 1 

One day, she sought out her uncle and demanded if 
he were acquainted with the reason of Louis's treatment 
of her. The Cardinal, chuckling over the success 
which was attending his Machiavellian scheme, assured 
her that the King's attitude was but assumed, in order 
to deceive the young Queen and the public ; that his 
regard for her was still as warm as ever, and that, once 
she was married, all would be changed. He added that, 
since all eyes were fixed upon her and the King, and 
every word which passed between them was faithfully 
reported to Maria Theresa, he must beg her to give 
him a solemn promise that she would not attempt to 
demand any explanation of his Majesty. 

Marie was very far from being satisfied with the 
Cardinal's assurances. But the promise was given and 
faithfully observed, though it must have been a cruelly 
hard task, for Louis now began to push his resentment 
so far as to vaunt in her presence the perfections of the 
Queen. " It is the fault of our sex," she says in her 
"Memoires," "to be unable to endure to hear others 
praised, even though they may deserve it. But, if the 
praise be bestowed by one whom we love on a person 

1 Madame de la Fayette, " Histoire de Madame Henriette d'Angle- 
terre." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 215 

who robs us of his affection, nothing is more painful, 
nothing more cruel. The King often made me ex- 
perience this. . . . And the orders that my uncle had 
given me never to demand an explanation of this 
matter prevented me from condemning him unheard. 
However, the emotions of my heart carried me away 
and obliged me to reveal my feelings two or three times 
to his Majesty, who received my complaints so ill that 
I resolved to say nothing further to him about it." 

Then she goes on to tell us that, " finding that her 
disease required a remedy," she proceeded to put into 
practice " a part of what Ovid advises in order to con- 
quer love," which, however, seems to have been no 
more efficacious than the precepts of Seneca which she 
had studied at Brouage ; that she removed from her 
sight every object that was capable of keeping her 
passion alive, and, " seeking a specious pretext to banish 
it from her heart, begged her sister Hortense to tell her 
all the evil she could of the King." l 

Notwithstanding the bitter mortification which the 
conduct of Louis XIV was occasioning her, Marie was 
still desirous of marrying Prince Charles of Lorraine, 
for whom, if she had no love, she had certainly con- 
ceived a very warm friendship and esteem. But the 
moment she ventured to broach the subject to the 

1 Hortense, in her " Memoires," confirms this : " On the return from 
the frontier, we were sent for to Fontainebleau, where the Court was. 
The King treated my sister somewhat coldly, and this change began to 
make her resolve to marry into Italy. She would often pray me to tell 
her as many ill things of the King as I could. But, apart from the fact 
that it was rather difficult to speak ill of such a prince as he, who lived 
among us with a charming sweetness and familiarity, my age, which was 
then only twelve, did not permit me to quite understand what was required 
of me, and all that I could do to help her, stricken with grief and loving 
her tenderly, was to weep for her misfortunes with her, until she might bear 
me company in weeping for mine." 



216 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Cardinal, his Eminence raised every conceivable objec- 
tion. The prince, he pointed out, was only the heir-pre- 
sumptive of his uncle, who, being always ready to 
marry all kinds of women, would be sure to take unto 
himself another wife ere long, and very probably have 
a son, in which event the alliance would be quite un- 
worthy of the niece of Cardinal Mazarin ! How much 
better would it be for her to accept the proposals of the 
Constable Colonna, one of the greatest noblemen of 
Italy, who, from all accounts, was, personally, quite as 
desirable a husband as Prince Charles, and whose future, 
moreover, was not dependent on the caprices of any 
relative ! 

Marie flew into a violent passion, declared that 
nothing should induce her to wed the Constable, and 
accused her uncle of wishing to break the promises he 
had made her a score of times not to send her away 
from France or force her into any marriage contrary to 
her inclination. The Cardinal shrugged his shoulders, 
declared that his beloved niece was under an entire mis- 
apprehension, that he had not the slightest intention of 
forcing any alliance upon her ; but that he felt it to be 
his duty to represent to her the inconveniences and 
advantages of those which happened to present them- 
selves at that moment. Then he left her, with an 
assurance that there was no need for haste, and that she 
could take as long as she pleased to consider the 
matter. 

Mazarin, having sown the seed, could afford to wait 
for the harvest, which, he felt sure, could not be long 
delayed, since the moment was now approaching when 
the unhappy Marie would be called upon to face an 
even more trying ordeal than that which she had had to 
encounter at Fontainebleau. 



CHAPTER XI 

Marie Mancini witnesses the entry of the Queen into Paris — Description 
of this pageant — Despair of Marie — She consents to marry the Con- 
stable Colonna — Visit of the Marchese d'Angelelli to Paris — Fete at 
the Palais-Mazarin — Illness of the Cardinal — His treatment of Anne 
of Austria — His last counsels to Louis XIV — His anxiety to see 
Marie wedded to the Constable — Hortense and her suitors — Marriage 
of Hortense to the Marquis de la Meilleraye — Death of Mazarin — 
" God be thanked ; he has gone ! " — His fortune — His will — Ex- 
planation between Marie and Louis XIV — The King implores Marie 
to break with the Constable Colonna — She refuses — Her marriage by 
procuration — Her departure for Italy — A disastrous journey — The 
Archbishop of Amasia — Meeting between Marie and the Constable 
at Milan — Letter of Louis XIV to Madame de Venel — Dangerous 
illness of Marie at Loretto — Her arrival in Rome — Letterof Louis XIV 
to the Constable Colonna. 

/^N 26 August, the King and Queen made their 
^^ famous entry into Paris by way of the Porte 
Saint- Antoine, and Marie Mancini, by her uncle's 
orders, was compelled to accompany his Eminence — 
who was too unwell to take part in the procession — and 
her sisters to the hotel of Madame de Beauvais, first 
femme de chambre to Anne of Austria, who had invited 
the Queen-Mother, the widowed Queen of England 
and her daughter, the ill-fated Henrietta, the Princesse 
Palatine, the Duchesses de Noailles and de Chevreuse, 
and other ladies of the Court, to witness the spectacle. 
At one of the upper windows sat Madame Scarron, the 
future Madame de Maintenon, who, though very much 
esteemed in fashionable society for her wit and beauty, 

217 



2i 8 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

was not yet a member of the Court. " Madame de 
Beauvais, the King's first adventure ; Marie de Mancini, 
his first love, and Madame Scarron, who was to be his 
last, met together to witness the entry of Maria Theresa. 
Do they not make a piquant picture ? " x 

The pageant was worthy of the occasion. In the 
Faubourg Saint-Antoine, a superb throne had been 
erected, supported by four columns and crowned with 
a dome. Twenty steps led up to the pavilion, which 
was open on three sides. It was hung with rich 
tapestries, and, seated under a dais, the King and Queen 
received the homage of their faithful subjects. All the 
corporate bodies, lay and clerical, presented their duty 
and swore allegiance to their sovereign. 2 

This ceremony concluded, the cortege started for the 
Louvre. The King, wishing to leave all the honours 
of the entry to the Queen, did not ride with her in the 
triumphal car, but rode some distance in front, pre- 
ceded by a glittering procession of troops, noblemen 
and gentlemen, and the retainers of various great person- 
ages. 

Nothing in this procession attracted more attention 
than Mazarin's Household, which, in the enforced 
absence of his Eminence, was marshalled under the 
direction of his intendant Colbert. " It was headed by 
seventy-two baggage-mules : the first twenty- four with 
trappings simple enough ; the next twenty-four with 
trappings finer, richer, and more splendid than the 
handsomest tapestries that you ever saw, and silver 
bits and bells ; in short, a magnificent sight, which 
evoked general admiration. Afterwards twenty-four 
pages went by, followed by all the gentlemen and 

1 Lucien Perey, " Le Roman du Grand Roi." 

2 Bingham's " Marriages of the Bourbons." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 219 

officers of his household, a very large number. Next 
came twelve carriages, each drawn by six horses, and then 
his Guards. His Household took an hour to pass by. 
Afterwards came that of Monsieur. I forgot, in speak- 
ing of the Cardinal's, to mention twenty-four horses 
splendidly caparisoned, and themselves so beautiful that 
I could not take my eyes off them. Monsieur's House- 
hold appeared after this very mean. Then came the 
King's, truly royal, for nothing in the world could have 
been more splendid. You know better than myself of 
what it is composed, but you cannot imagine the beauty 
of the horses on which the pages of the royal stables 
rode ; they came prancing along, and were handled most 
dexterously. Then came the Musketeers, distinguished 
by their different plumes ; the first brigade wore white ; 
the second, yellow, black, and white ; the third, blue 
and white ; and the fourth, green and white. After 
this, came pages-in-waiting, with flame-coloured sur- 
touts covered all over with gold. Then M. de Navailles, 
at the head of the light cavalry — all this magnificent ; 
next Vardes, 1 at the head of the Hundred Swiss ; he 
wore a uniform of green and gold, which became him 
very well. 

" Then . . . No, I think the gentlemen of quality 
followed the light cavalry ; there were a great many of 
them — all so magnificent that it would be difficult to 
select any one in particular. . . . The Comte de Guiche 2 
rode all alone, covered with embroidery and precious 

1 Francois Renedu Bec-Crespin, Marquis de Vardes, son of Henri IV's 
mistress, the Comtesse de Moret, by her second marriage with the Marquis 
de Vardes. He was a consummate courtier, and likewise a consummate 
scoundrel. See p. 245 et seq. infra. 

2 Armand de Gramont, younger son of Antoine II, Due de Gramont, 
and nephew of Philibert de Gramont, the hero of Count Hamilton's 
«* Memoires." 



220 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

stones, which sparkled delightfully in the sun. He 
was surrounded by servants in rich liveries, and followed 
by some officers of the Guards." 1 

The Marechaux de France preceded the King, before 
whom they bore a brocaded canopy. "The King was 
attired in a suit of silver brocade covered with pearls 
and adorned with a marvellous number of carnation- 
coloured and silver ribbons, with a superb plume of 
carnation -coloured and white feathers clasped by a 
cluster of diamonds ; his belt and sword were of the 
richest workmanship. He was mounted on a splendid 
Spanish horse, a dark bay, with its trappings of silver 
brocade and its harness sewn with precious stones. 

"The Queen's pages-in-waiting, in superb liveries, 
followed. Then came the caleche of her Majesty, 
which might be more fittingly described as a triumphal 
car. It was covered, inside and out, with gold-wire 
embroidery, an entirely new invention, on a silver 
ground, the outside, both front and back, adorned with 
festoons in relief, all embroidered with gold and silver 
wire. The canopy likewise was embroidered, both 
inside and out, with the same kind of embroidery, and 
was supported by two columns encircled with jasmine 
and olive blossoms, symbolical of Love and Peace. All 
that part of the caleche which is usually made of iron 
was of silver-gilt, and even the wheels were gilded. 

" This marvellous car was drawn by six pearl-coloured 
Danish horses, whose manes and tails reached to the 
ground, caparisoned and covered with trappings of the 
same embroidery, and all of them of such rare beauty 
that no painter could possibly hope to do them justice, 

1 Letter of Madame de Maintenon to Madame de Villarceaux, 27 
August 1660, " Correspondance Generale de Madame de Maintenon," 
i. 71. 




in engraving after the_"painting by Beaubrun 

MARIA THERESA OF AUSTRIA, QUEEN OF FRANCE 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 221 

and all that one can say is that they were chefs-d'amvre 
of Nature, made expressly to take part in this pageant. 

" The princess [the Queen] was attired in a robe on 
which gold, pearls, and precious stones made up a 
brilliant and imposing combination, while her coiffure 
was resplendent with the Crown jewels, which, how- 
ever, lent far less eclat to her appearance than her own 
charms." 1 

" One can easily picture," remarks Lucien Perey, 
" what Marie suffered during that day, and the bitter 
thoughts that the triumph of the Queen aroused in her 
mind. How many times had she dreamed, intoxicated 
by the promises and the passion of the King, of thus 
entering the Louvre, Queen and triumphant ! And, to 
crown her punishment, she was forced to assist at the 
spectacle of that joyous and enthusiastic crowd, and to 
listen to the acclamations which greeted the woman who 
had replaced her. Yet, if she had been alone, and had 
been able to give way to her grief ! But she had to 
submit to this torture before Anne of Austria, before 
her uncle, to whom she was indebted for it, and before 
the ladies of the Court, some of whom betrayed their 
sympathy by glances of compassion." 2 

Resolved at all costs to disguise her feelings, the 
unhappy girl, summoning to her aid all her strength of 
character, succeeded in enduring to the end this terrible 
ordeal, without betraying by word or look the anguish 
which consumed her. No sooner, however, had she 
regained the Palais- Mazarin and her own room, than 
her strength gave way and she fainted. Madame de 
Venel, who had doubtless anticipated some such denoue- 
ment, was quickly at hand with restoratives ; but scarcely 

1 Gazette de France, 3 September 1660. 

2 " Le Roman du Grand Roi." 



222 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

had her charge recovered consciousness and perceived 
the gouvernante, than she entreated her to leave her, 
" since she could not endure the sight of her." 

Madame de Venel, not altogether displeased, we may 
presume, with such a tribute to the efficiency with 
which she had discharged the duties of her post, hurried 
off to acquaint the Cardinal with his niece's condition. 
Mazarin, however, knew when to let well alone ; and, 
perceiving that any interference from him at this junc- 
ture was more likely to delay than to hasten the end 
which he had in view, left the girl to her grief. His 
policy was justified, for, the following morning, Marie 
requested an interview with her uncle, informed him 
that she was willing to accept the Constable Colonna as 
her husband, and begged that he would at once announce 
her approaching marriage to the Court. 

Transported with joy at the success of his scheme, 
Mazarin hastened to write to the Marchese d'Angelelli, 
a friend and confidant of the Constable, who had been 
the intermediary between him and the Cardinal, to 
inform him of his niece's decision. The marquis, who 
was at Brussels, at once set out for Paris, where, quickly 
perceiving the true cause of Marie's resolution, he 
neglected nothing to diminish the aversion which she 
had for the match, painting the Constable in the most 
advantageous colours, and expatiating on the delights 
of Rome and the splendid position which would be hers 
as the wife of so great a personage. 

He might have spared himself the trouble ; the girl 
had not the smallest intention of changing her mind, 
since, in the interval, she had been subjected to a fresh 
ordeal. A fortnight after the entry of the King and 
Queen into Paris, the Cardinal had given a grand f£te 
to their Majesties at the Palais-Mazarin, one of the 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 223 

features of which had been a supper served with a 
magnificence which had never been seen before. And 
at this supper Marie, who, as the eldest of his Eminence's 
unmarried nieces, was called upon to do the honours to 
the queens, had had the unspeakable humiliation, as it 
seemed to her, of waiting upon her triumphant rival 
with her own hands. That evening put the comble upon 
her punishment. Henceforth, she had but one desire : 
to shake the dust of Paris off her feet as speedily as 
possible. 

Ever since his return from the Pyrenees, Mazarin's 
health, which had been infirm for some time past, had 
been steadily failing. His constitution was naturally 
good, but there can be no doubt that the enormous 
amount of work which he voluntarily imposed upon 
himself had gone far to impair it, and the three months 
he had spent on the marshy banks of the Bidassoa, in 
the midst of incessant labours and anxieties of all kinds, 
had hastened the progress of his malady. Early in 
1 66 1, his condition grew rapidly worse, and his phy- 
sicians felt it their duty to warn him that his end was 
near. 

Anne of Austria was in despair; while the King, who 
entertained a genuine affection for the Minister who 
had stood to him in place of a father, and who, what- 
ever his faults may have been, had never spared himself 
in his sovereign's service, was scarcely less affected. 
Both their Majesties established themselves at Vin- 
cennes, where the Cardinal lay ill, and it was rarely 
that a day passed on which the Queen-Mother did not 
come to sit by the dying man's bedside and lavish 
upon him the most tender care. But Mazarin showed 
no gratitude ; for eighteen years he had been acting a 



224 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

part, and now, in the very presence of death, he prob- 
ably felt that it was time to have done with it. " He 
treated her as if she were a chambermaid," says Mont- 
glat ; " and when they came to tell him that she was 
mounting the stairs to his room, he frowned, and 
said before his valets : * Ah ! that woman will be the 
death of me ; she worries me so. Will she never 
leave me in peace ? " * 

His conduct towards Louis XIV was very different, 
and proves that the almost extravagant professions of 
loyalty and devotion which his letters to his sovereign 
contain must have been dictated by genuine feeling. 
He now gave him at great length his last counsels, 
urging him strongly to take upon himself the chief 
direction of affairs, to limit the Parliament of Paris to 
its judicial functions, and to reduce taxation, so far as 
the necessary expenses of the Government would per- 
mit. He also advised him to avail himself of Colbert's 
services in the finances, and to keep a careful control over 
the operations of Fouquet. And all his directions, save 
those relating to the two persons just mentioned, were 
carefully committed to writing by order of the King. 2 

Two private matters greatly exercised the Cardinal's 
mind during his last hours : one was the future of 
Marie, the other that of her sister Hortense. 

Mazarin was feverishly anxious to get the former safely 
wedded to the Constable Colonna, for until that was ac- 
complished, he was in constant dread lest some chance 
might reveal to Louis the true state of the girl's feelings 
towards him, and bring about a revival of his passion. 
However, many vexatious delays occurred, and the Car- 
dinal did not live to see his wish gratified. 

1 "Memoires de Montglat." 

2 Mr. J. B. Perkins's " France under Richelieu and Mazarin." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 225 

Hortense's establishment in life occasioned him 
scarcely less anxiety. When it is remembered that the 
young girl was gifted with quite extraordinary beauty, 
and that it had long been an open secret that her uncle 
intended to bequeath her the bulk of his vast wealth, it 
is not surprising that her suitors should have been well- 
nigh as numerous as those of Penelope. The Cardinal, 
however, was hard to please, and the majority of them 
were very quickly sent about their business. Among 
those, however, whose pretensions received more con- 
sideration at his hands, excluding Charles Emmanuel of 
Savoy, of whom mention has been made elsewhere, 
were two future sovereigns, Pedro II of Portugal and 
Charles II of England. 

Why Mazarin refused the overtures of Pedro, then 
Regent of his future kingdom, does not appear to be 
known ; but it is not improbable that, since Portugal 
was at war with Spain, he feared that the marriage of 
his niece to its ruler might be resented by the latter 
country, and interfere with the progress of the negotia- 
tions for peace. 

However that may be, political considerations were 
certainly responsible for his rejection of Charles II's 
suit. During the Conferences at the lie des Faisans, 
Charles journeyed thither in the hope of inducing 
France and Spain to assist him in an attempt to recover 
his kingdom, and, with the idea of binding Mazarin to 
his cause and, at the same time, of replenishing his 
empty purse, asked for Hortense's hand. But the 
Cardinal was resolved not to break with the existing 
Government in England, so long as there was a pos- 
sibility of renewed war with Spain ; and, besides, in 
common with nearly all Continental statesmen, con- 
sidered Charles's chance of recovering the throne which 

Q 



226 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

his father had forfeited a very remote one, even with 
foreign aid. And so he gracefully declined the honour 
by insisting that, " so long as a cousin of his Majesty's 
(i.e. Mile, de Montpensier) remained unmarried, he 
must not think of a simple demoiselle." 1 

Could Mazarin have foreseen that, in a few months 
from that date, without a single European sovereign 
stirring a finger to help him, the King would come to 
his own again, his answer would, no doubt, have been a 
very different one ; and, indeed, scarcely was Charles 
seated on the throne than the Cardinal, judging him to 
be still in need of money, sent Bartet to London to 
offer him Hortense and five million livres with her. 
Henrietta Maria, who had just concluded the marriage 
of her daughter with Monsieur, showed herself very 
favourable to the Cardinal's project, and urged her son 
to accept the lady and the dowry. But Charles's posi- 
tion was growing stronger daily ; the signs of hostility 
which had at first manifested themselves in the Parlia- 
ment and the army had almost entirely disappeared ; 
while his counsellors were, of course, as strongly op- 
posed to the match as had been Mazarin to an alliance 
between his own sovereign and Marie Mancini. And 
so, to the intense mortification of the Cardinal, the 
King, not, we may suppose, without a biting jest or two 

1 Mr. Osmund Airy, " Charles II." Mile, de Montpensier, in her 
"Memoires," says that the day after the Cardinal arrived at Saint-Jean-de- 
Luz, having signed the peace, he came to pay her a visit, and said : 
" The King of England has proposed to marry my niece Hortense. I 
replied that he did me too much honour, but, so long as there were first 
cousins of the King to marry " (meaning Mile, de Montpensier), " I must 
decline." Mademoiselle adds that she thanked him, and strongly urged 
him to give Hortense to the King. ... "I learned that on the death of 
Cromwell, the Queen of England (Henrietta Maria) had made the same 
proposal to the Cardinal, who had rejected it. The last time it was 
M. de Turenne who made it. He took a great interest in that which 
concerned the King of England." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 227 

about the irony of Fate, declined what he had once 
solicited so humbly. 

When Mazarin found that his days were numbered, 
he resolved to have done with kings and princes, and to 
give Hortense and her wealth to some French nobleman 
who would assume and perpetuate his name. He 
thought of Turenne ; but Turenne had an illustrious 
name, which he was disinclined to abandon, and fifty 
years, which the young Hortense was even more dis- 
inclined to accept. Then there was some talk of the 
Prince de Courtenay, a descendant of the youngest son of 
Louis le GroSy who could boast of the longest pedigree 
and the shortest purse of any nobleman in France. But, 
notwithstanding his illustrious lineage, the Cardinal soon 
decided that a young man " who had literally nothing 
but his cloak and his sword " was no fit match for the 
richest heiress in Europe. Finally, he determined to 
consult the Bishop of Frejus, who had been for many 
years the confidant of his secret missions and family 
difficulties, and, indeed, very much to him what Pere 
Joseph had been to his great predecessor. 

Now, the Marquis de la Meilleraye, Grand Master of 
the Artillery, whose suit the Cardinal had so con- 
temptuously rejected four years before, had stoutly 
declined to abandon hope, and had continued to pay 
Hortense the most assiduous court. During the exile of 
the three sisters at La Rochelle and Brouage, he had 
despatched couriers to the object of his adoration with 
almost as much regularity as had the King to Marie, 
thereby occasioning poor Madame de Venel much em- 
barrassment ; and, knowing the confidence that Mazarin 
reposed in the counsels of the Bishop of Frejus and the 
venal character of that prelate, he had engaged him to 
plead his cause with the Cardinal, promising him a 



228 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

reward of fifty thousand ecus, in the event of his efforts 
being crowned with success. 

At first his Eminence would listen to nothing in 
La Meiller aye's favour — had he not declared that he 
would rather give Hortense to a lackey ? — but now, on 
his death-bed, he relented, and, on 28 February 1661, 
the marriage-contract of Hortense de Mancini and 
Armand Charles de la Porte, Marquis de la Meilleraye, 
Grand Master of the Artillery, was signed by their 
Majesties, at Vincennes, in the Cardinal's sick-room. 1 
Then, at his Eminence's request, the King created La 
Meilleraye a duke, by the title of Due de Mazarin. 2 

" So soon as the marriage was concluded," writes 
Hortense, "he [the Grand Master] sent me a great 
cabinet, wherein, among other rich gifts, there were ten 
thousand pistoles in gold. I gave a great part of them 
to my brother and sisters, to console them for my 
opulence, which they could not see without envy, how- 
ever much they endeavoured to conceal it. I never put 
them to the trouble of asking me, for the key always 
remained in the same place in which it was when they 
brought it, and they took all they wanted. One day, 
for want of some better amusement, we threw more than 
three hundred louis out of the window of the Palais- 

1 But the Bishop of Frejus never got his fifty thousand ecus. Hortense 
writes : " The bishop, won over previously by the Due de Mazarin, upon 
promise of fifty thousand ecus, neglected nothing to deserve them. But he 
never received them, for he returned the bond, which was given him, in- 
timating that he would prefer the bishopric of Evreux if he could'obtain it. 
But the King, having disposed of it to another, notwithstanding M. de 
Mazarin importuning him for the space of two months, M. de Frejus 
claimed the fifty thousand ecus, which, however, M. de Mazarin was 
no longer willing to pay." 

2 Mr. J. B. Perkins, in his " France under Richelieu and Mazarin," 
states that the Cardinal bequeathed this title to La Meilleraye; but this is 
incorrect. The Cardinal was never Due de Mazarin. He was, however, 
Due de Nivernois et Donziois, which duchy went to Philippe Mancini. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 229 

Mazarin, to have the pleasure of seeing a crowd of ser- 
vants which was in the court scramble and fight for 
them. This prodigality, reaching the Cardinal's ears, 
caused him so much displeasure that it is believed to 
have hastened his end." 1 

Mazarin, in fact, died ten days after Hortense's mar- 
riage, on Wednesday, 10 March 1661, "meeting death 
with a good countenance," according to the expression of 
Madame de Motteville. On the previous Sunday, feel- 
ing his end approaching, he sent for M. Joly, at that 
time cure of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs and afterwards 
Bishop of Agen, to whom he confessed, remarking : " I 
am not satisfied ; I much desire to feel a greater grief 
for my sins. I am a great criminal, and I have no hope, 
save in the mercy of God." The following day he 
received Extreme Unction, " avec de grands temoignages de 
piete. 

On the Tuesday, he requested that Mass should be 
said in his room, adding that he had perhaps never 
heard Mass once in his life in the spirit in which the 
Church intended him to hear it. M. Joly then asked 
him whether it were not his wish to make some public 
amends for the bad examples he had given and the 
scandals he had been guilty of during his life ; to which 
he replied, " Most willingly," and " taking a holy 
candle in his hand, with bare head and according to the 
formula of amende honorable and public reparation, he 
asked pardon of God for all his sins, and begged those 
whom he had offended to pardon him." Soon after- 
wards, he was seized with a violent spasm of pain, and 
was heard to mutter : " Courage ! It is necessary to 
suffer." About two hours after midnight, M. Joly 
made him kiss the crucifix, and without any other out- 

1 "Memoires de la Duchesse de Mazarin." 



230 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

ward sign, save a slight opening of the mouth, he 
expired. 

Marie, Hortense, and Philippe Mancini were in an 
adjoining room when Bernouin, the Cardinal's valet de 
chambre, came to inform them that his master was no 
more. " My brother and sister," writes Hortense, 
" looked at one another, and, for all regret, observed : 
c God be thanked ; he has gone ! ' And, to tell the truth, I 
was scarcely more grieved. It is a remarkable thing that 
a man of that merit, after having laboured all his life to 
elevate and enrich his family, should have received from 
it, after his death, nothing but marks of aversion. But, 
if you knew with what severity he treated us in all 
things, you would be less surprised at it. Never had 
man manners so courteous in public and so harsh in his 
own house. All our tastes and inclinations were con- 
trary to his, and to that must be added the incredible 
subjection in which we were kept." 1 

The Cardinal on his death-bed offered to leave his 
fortune to the King, but this offer, as he no doubt 
expected it would be, was declined. The amount of 
that fortune has been variously estimated. Saint-Simon 
places it as high as 60,000,000 livres, a sum which in pur- 
chasing power would represent between ten and twelve 
million pounds sterling to-day; but the majority of con- 
temporary writers, including the Duchesse de Mazarin, 
who, as her uncle's residuary legatee, may be presumed 
to have known something about the matter, estimate it 
at little more than half that amount, and even this 
figure is probably somewhat exaggerated. "The most 
authentic figures as to his fortune," says Mr. Perkins, 

1 " Memoires de la Duchesse de Mazarin." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 231 

"are in a statement prepared by Colbert, in 1658. They 
show that at that time it was somewhat less than 
8,000,000 livres. His income, including his pensions 
and livings, was about 800,000 livres. This estimate 
did not include his art collections, his jewels, or the 
offices and governments which he held, and which passed 
to his heirs. His fortune also was largely increased 
after 1658, but it was probably overestimated. What- 
ever it was, it was an enormous one to have accumulated 
in the public service, and is a stain upon Mazarin's 
memory. He might have urged, in mitigation of his 
offence, that he lived in an age of almost universal public 
corruption, while it was not his greed, but his oppor- 
tunities, which exceeded that of most of his contem- 
poraries." 1 

The Cardinal ratified the provisions he had already 
made for the erection and endowment of the College des 
Quatre Nations, for scholars for Roussillon, Artois, 
Alsace, and Piedmont, left donations to various charities 
and legacies to several of his friends ; but the bulk of 
his wealth was bequeathed to his family. Philippe 
Mancini had the duchy and peerage of Nivernois and 
Donziois, 2 which the Cardinal had purchased from the 
Duke of Mantua, in 1659, half of the Palais-Mazarin, 
the paintings and statuary in which represented a con- 
siderable fortune, the Palazzo Mazarini at the foot of 
the Quirinal, in Rome, and 600,000 livres in cash. By 
his uncle's request, he quartered the arms of the 
Cardinal with his own, and added the name of Mazarini 
to his patronymic. 

The Comtesse de Soissons received only 350,000 
livres ; but, in 1660, her uncle had purchased for her, 

1 " France under Richelieu and Mazarin." 

2 Philippe Mancini took the title of Due de Nevers. 



232 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

for 250,000 livres, the much-coveted post of Superinten- 
dent of the Queen's Household. 

Marianne Mancini received 600,000 livres. 

Marie, in spite of all the Cardinal's fine promises, 
was very badly treated in comparison with her sisters, 
since she received nothing but a dowry of 100,000 livres 
a year, which Mazarin had promised her on her mar- 
riage with the Constable Colonna, 1 1 5,000 livres for the 
expenses of her journey to Italy, and jewellery to the 
value of another forty thousand. 

The most favoured of all the Mancini was, of course, 
Hortense, who, with her husband, inherited the residue 
of her uncle's fortune, including the finer portion of 
the Palais-Mazarin and its contents. 2 

Mazarin had died without seeing the marriage for 
which he was so feverishly anxious celebrated, and the 
fear that it would encounter some obstacle followed 
him to the grave. Nor were his apprehensions ground- 
less. A few days after the Cardinal's death, Marie, 
believing herself released from the solemn promise 
which she had given her uncle not to demand of the 
King any explanation of the change in his manner 
towards her, was unable to resist the temptation of 
acquainting his Majesty with all that she had suffered 

1 "The said Cardinal," runs the will, "desires that she [Marie] shall 
be content with the dowry that he has promised her on her marriage with 
the Constable Colonna, which is the most illustrious and advantageous 
alliance which could be desired in Italy." 

2 The old Hotel Tubeuf, the galleries erected by Mansart, and the 
dependencies adjoining the Rue des Petits-Champs. This part continued 
to bear the name of the Palais-Mazarin. Philippe Mancini had the 
buildings newly erected, situated on the Rue de Richelieu and the Cour 
de l'Horloge, with part of the former hotel of Duret de Chevry. The 
principal entrance of his hotel, which was given the name of the Hotel 
de Nevers, was in the Rue de Richelieu, and is now that of the Biblio- 
theque Nationale. — Amedee Renee, " Les Nieces de Mazarin." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 233 

since his return to Paris : the bitter mortification of 
finding that the sacrifice she had made for his sake had 
earned her, instead of his esteem and gratitude, nothing 
but coldness and disdain, the torture she had endured 
on the day of his entry into Paris, which was renewed 
every time she saw the Queen, and so forth. 

The result may easily be imagined. As he listened 
to the girl's burning words, Louis perceived that all 
that he had been told about her infatuation for Prince 
Charles of Lorraine was false, and that, in his blind 
jealousy, he had allowed himself to be made the dupe 
of a clever conspiracy. All his passion revived, and, 
casting himself at her feet, he swore that he adored her 
still, and entreated her to break with the Constable 
Colonna, promising to take upon himself the whole 
responsibility for the rupture. But Marie, though 
deeply moved, was inflexible. What position, she 
asked, was he able to offer her ? Could it be possible 
that he imagined that she, whom he had promised to 
make his wife and Queen of France, would ever stoop 
to become his mistress ? If the Constable Colonna, 
she declared, now that her uncle was dead, refused to 
accept her as his wife, it was her intention to enter a 
convent. 

The King, however, whose passion her resistance 
only served to inflame, refused to abandon hope. He 
recommenced to visit her every evening, as had been his 
custom before her exile to La Rochelle, paid her the most 
delicate attentions, and strove by every means in his power 
to induce her to remain in France. Prince Charles of 
Lorraine, on his side, taking heart of grace from the 
fact that the Constable Colonna had not yet signed the 
marriage-contract which had been sent to Rome for his 
approval, and was commonly credited with a desire to 



234 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

break off the match now that Marie's fortune had 
proved to be far below what every one had expected, 
continued to press his suit, and lost no opportunity of 
testifying his devotion. "The young Prince Charles 
of Lorraine," writes Hortense, " loved my sister passion- 
ately, pressed her to marry him, and continued this 
pursuit, even after the Cardinal's death. The Queen- 
Mother, who by no means wished her to remain in 
France, charged Madame de Venel to break off the 
intrigue at any cost ; but all her efforts would have 
been useless, had they not been seconded by certain 
reasons unknown to any one. And, although the King had 
the kindness to offer her [Marie] the choice of any one 
else in France for a husband, if M. de Lorraine did not 
please her, and showed himself sensibly displeased at 
her resolution to leave France, her evil star drew her 
into Italy." 1 

These reasons, " unknown to any one," must have 
been perfectly well known to Hortense, who, however, 
writing only some fifteen years after the events we are 
relating, was naturally reluctant to publish them to the 
world. Marie was no Gabrielle d'Estrees or Jacqueline 
de Beuil to contract a marriage for the convenience of a 
king ; other women might ardently covet the post of 
royal favourite, and find in the power and influence 
attached to it abundant compensation for their dishonour ; 
but to her, who had once believed that so very different 
a destiny awaited her, the position would be intolerable. 
And she refused absolutely to break with the Constable 
Colonna. 

At the beginning of May, news arrived that the Con- 
stable had signed the marriage articles at Rome, and that 
a courier was on his way with them to Paris. Louis 

1 " Memoires de la Duchesse de Mazarin." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 235 

XIV made no attempt to conceal the chagrin which 
Marie's coming departure occasioned him, and meeting 
her an evening or two later in the Queen-Mother's 
apartments, said : " Destiny, which is above kings, has 
disposed of us contrary to our inclinations, Madame ; 
but it will not prevent me from seeking to give you 
proofs of my esteem and attachment in whatever country 
of the world you may be." And then, turning to 
Madame de Venel, who was standing by, he added : 
" And you, Madame, I beg you to be my surety, and to 
accompany the Constabless as far as Milan, where the 
Constable should come to receive her, and to write me 
a full account of the incidents of the journey." 

A few days later, a courier arrived with the expected 
articles, and the marriage was celebrated in the King's 
chapel at the Louvre, by the Archbishop of Amasia, after- 
wards Patriarch of Jerusalem, uncle of the Constable 
Colonna, for whom the Marchese d'Angelelli stood 
proxy. 1 The ceremony concluded, Marie was treated as 
a foreign princess, addressed by their Majesties as " my 
cousin," and accorded the tabouret 2 in the presence of 
the Queen. 

The preparations for departure were soon completed, 
and, accompanied by the Archbishop of Amasia, the 
Marchese d'Angelelli, and Madame de Venel, and 

1 She had been affianced the previous evening in the King's cabinet, an 
honour commonly reserved for Princes and Princesses of the Blood. 

2 The tabouret was a stool, on which Princes and Princesses of the 
Blood, foreign princes and princesses, cardinals, dukes and duchessess — in 
fact, all persons whom it was customary for their Majesties to address as 
" cousin," had the privilege of seating themselves in the presence of the 
Queen. Occasionally, as a special favour, it was accorded to other 
persons. Thus Madame de Montespan, although only a marchioness — 
she could not be created a duchess, as were Louise de la Valliere and 
Mile, de Fontanges, because that step would have involved the elevation 
of her husband — was given the tabouret by Louis XIV, in 1679. 



2 3 6 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

escorted by a hundred mounted guards, under the com- 
mand of M. de Monceau, one of the gentlemen of the 
late Cardinal's Household, she set out for Italy. As on 
the occasion of her departure for La Rochelle, two years 
before, Louis XIV conducted her to her coach and 
gravely kissed her hand. He was evidently deeply 
moved, but no word escaped him. Marie was less self- 
controlled, and burst into tears as the coach drove away. 
They were never to meet again. 

The journey to Milan was a most trying and calami- 
tous one, and must have seemed to Marie, who, like 
nearly all her family, was intensely superstitious, the 
worst possible augury for the future. A few days after 
leaving Paris, a fever broke out among the servants, of 
which more than one of them died. The weather, 
while crossing the Simplon Pass, was terrible ; the road 
was in an indescribable condition, and several men of 
the escort and their horses fell over a precipice and were 
dashed to pieces. Nor did their disasters end when the 
mountains had been traversed, for the first evening 
after their arrival in Italy, the balcony of the house in 
which Marie was lodged gave way, precipitating a num- 
ber of the party, who had gathered there to admire the 
view, to the ground. The unfortunate owner of the 
house was killed, while several others received more or 
less serious injuries. "One saw only broken heads, 
arms, and legs ; one heard only the cries of the injured. 
It was a frightful spectacle and calculated to move the 
hardest heart." 

To add to the grief and terror which these calamities 
must have occasioned her, poor Marie was so unlucky 
as to offend the Archbishop of Amasia, a most un- 
pleasant personage, who appears to have been half mad 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 237 

when sober and altogether so when drunk; 1 and the 
estimable prelate revenged himself by commiserating his 
niece on the unhappy fate which, he declared, awaited her 
with the Constable, whom he depicted as a libertine of 
the most abandoned kind and a ferocious tyrant, who 
would keep her a close prisoner in his palace, and, on 
the slightest suspicion, would not scruple to beat or 
even to poison her. Nor did he neglect to relate to 
her, embellished with a thousand gruesome details, the 
terrible legend of a Princess Colonna, who was immured 
by her husband in the dungeon of an old castle, where 
she remained until every one believed her dead, and 
would assuredly never have seen the light of day again, 
had not her moans attracted the attention of a passer-by, 
who informed her relatives of her plight. 

The unfortunate Marie was so overcome by the 
archbishop's discourse, that she announced her inten- 
tion of immediately petitioning the Pope to annul her 
marriage, and it required all the efforts of the Marchese 
d'Angelelli and the Constable's brother, the amiable 
Abbate Colonna, afterwards Prince of Sonnino, who 
joined them a day or two after they entered Italy, to 
reassure her. 2 

A few miles from Milan, the party was met by the 
Constable Colonna and one of his friends, the Marques 

1 He was the youngest brother of the Constable's father, Filippo 
Colonna, and was born in 1602. In his youth, he bore the title of Duca 
di Marsi. Having killed a young nobleman in a duel, he was compelled 
to leave Rome, and took service with the Spaniards in Flanders. In 
1638, stimulated perhaps by remorse for his crime, he returned to Rome 
and took Orders. He did not, however, deem it necessary to lay aside 
the manners and morals of the worst type of mercenary soldier with his 
sword and uniform. 

2 Letter of the Abbe Benedetti to Lionne, Archives des Affaires 
Etrangeres, published by Lucien Perey, " Une Princesse romaine au 
xvii e si&cle : Marie Mancini Colonna." 



238 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Spinola de los Balbases, 1 who, at Colonna's request, ad- 
vanced first to greet Marie, representing himself to be 
her husband. As the marquis was middle-aged and of 
far from prepossessing appearance, while she had been 
led to believe that, to the eye at least, the Constable was 
all that could be desired, the poor girl was bitterly dis- 
appointed, " received his compliments with a coldness 
equal to her surprise," and, turning to one of her wait- 
ing-women, remarked in French, that, " if this were the 
husband intended for her, she would decline to have 
him, and that he might seek a wife elsewhere." 

The waiting-woman, however, who happened to have 
seen a portrait of Colonna, recognised him instantly, and 
pointed him out to her mistress, who was immensely 
relieved at finding that she had been mistaken. 

The Constable, having welcomed his bride, conducted 
her to a little pleasure-house in the vicinity, where a 
sumptuous repast had been prepared, after partaking of 
which, they proceeded to Milan, at whose gates they 
were received by the Governor, the Duca di Gaetano, 
and the principal citizens. 

Milanese society was, of course, eager to make the 
acquaintance of the lady who had had the King of 
France at her feet, and, during the few days which 
Marie and her husband spent in the city, " the ladies of 
the first quality vied with one another in giving magni- 
ficent entertainments in her honour." "But," continues 
Marie, " the fatigues of the journey, the grief at finding 
myself separated from my relatives, and, above all, alas ! 
my sorrow at having left France, rendered me in the 
worst humour conceivable, which occasioned consider- 

1 He was an Italian, although he bore a Spanish title, and a grandson 
of Ambrogio Spinola, the celebrated general of the Thirty Years War. 
The marquis, a year or two later, married a sister of Lorenzo Colonna. 




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From an engraving after the drawing by Giacomo Bichi 

LORENZO ONOFRIO COLONNA, PRINCIPE DI PALLIANO, 
GRAND CONSTABLE OF THE KINGDOM OF NAPLES 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 239 

able uneasiness to the Constable, who did everything 
possible to afford me diversion." 1 

Colonna, on the other hand, seems to have been 
charmed with his bride, the more so, since he found 
that certain fears which he had entertained in regard to 
the nature of her relations with Louis XIV had been 
without justification. " The Constable," writes Hor- 
tense, " who had at first believed that the love of kings 
could not be innocent, was so delighted to find the 
contrary in the person of my sister, that he made no 
account of not being the first who had gained her heart. 
He lost the bad opinion which, like all Italians, he pos- 
sessed of the liberty accorded to ladies in France, and 
decided to allow her the same liberty at Rome, since he 
found she used it so discreetly." 2 

As Colonna was anxious to reach Rome before the 
heat of the summer reached its height, he and his young 
wife only remained ten days in Milan, and then set out 
on their journey southward, while Madame de Venel 
and the escort returned to Paris. Immediately on her 
arrival in Milan, the gouvernante had written as Louis 
XIV had enjoined upon her, giving him a full account 
of the incidents of the journey ; but she appears to 
have said nothing about the health of the Constabless, 
who was very far from well. To this letter, the King 
replied in terms which show the tender interest which 
he still felt for Marie. 

Louis XIV to Madame de Venel. 

" Fontainebleau, 20 June 1661. 
" Madame de Venel, — I have been very pleased to 
hear, from your letter from Milan, of the happy suc- 

1 ** La Verite dans son jour." 

2 "Memoires de la Duchesse de Mazarin." 



2 4 o FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

cess of your journey and the termination of your ad- 
ventures. 

" After having guarded a treasure with the utmost 
vigilance, there was nothing more honourable than to 
hand it over in perfect safety to the person to whom it 
belongs, as you have done, thereby proving still further 
that you are deserving of the custody of more im- 
portant ones, 1 which I have resolved to entrust to you 
the moment I am able." 2 

The Constable and Marie journeyed by easy stages 
to Loretto, where the latter became so ill that it was 
impossible for her to proceed further. A violent attack 
of brain-fever declared itself, and for many days the 
unhappy girl lay between life and death. Her husband, 
in despair, sent out messengers to scour the town and 
all the country round for doctors, and at one time nearly 
a dozen medical gentlemen were gathered round the 
sick-bed. All agreed that the illness was a dangerous 
one, but no one seemed able to propose any remedy 
which his colleagues felt themselves justified in trying. 
To make matters worse, the Archbishop of Amasia 
persecuted the luckless invalid with zealous exhortations, 
" never entering her room without informing her that 
no hope of saving her life remained, and that she must 
prepare for death." At length, two celebrated phy- 
sicians arrived from Rome, followed closely by Marie's 
uncle, Cardinal Mancini. The Roman doctors soon 
got rid of the incompetent throng which beset the 
house ; the Cardinal, a kindly and practical man, turned 

1 As a reward for her services, Mazarin and Anne of Austria had 
some time before persuaded the King to promise Madame de Venel the 
post of sous-gouvernante to his daughters, should any be born to him. 

2 « (Euvres de Louis XIV." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 241 

the archbishop as courteously as he could out of the 
sick-room, and the Constabless began to mend. 1 At 
length, she was pronounced fit to continue her journey, 
and, towards the end of July, arrived in Rome. 

During her illness, Louis XIV, who had learned from 
the Duchesse de Mazarin of her sister's condition, 
showed himself much concerned, and wrote to Loretto, 
requesting that a courier should be despatched every day 
to inform him how she fared. On reaching their destina- 
tion, the Constable Colonna lost no time in acquainting 
the King with their safe arrival and of his wife's con- 
valescence, to which his Majesty replied in the following 
letter, wherein it is not difficult to detect an under- 
current of bitterness. 

Louis XIV to the Constable Colonna. 

" Fontainebleau, 6 August 166 1. 

" My Cousin, — After the fatigues of a long journey 
and a dangerous illness, it is not a small thing that 
my cousin, your wife, should have at last arrived in 
Rome in a state of convalescence. I have been very 
pleased to learn this good news, from the letter which 
you have written me, trusting that the repose and satis- 
faction of being with you will soon restore her to per- 
fect health, a consummation which I desire with all my 
heart. I have remarked also with great pleasure the 

1 But one of the doctors to whom she owed her life nearly lost his. 
Benedetti writes : " Supping one day with the doctors who had been 
summoned from Rome, the Archbishop of Amasia hastened to furnish 
them with an occasion to practise their art upon themselves. One of the 
doctors having dared to contradict him about the cause of Madame's ill- 
ness, he threw a knife full at his chest, which was intended to kill him, 
and inflicted so grievous a wound that he was for some days in danger of 
death. The following morning, the archbishop went complacently to 
make his excuses, remarking that he had been somewhat heated with 
wine." 



242 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

sentiments which she has preserved towards myself, and 
that they are shared by you. Be assured that mine 
will ever be for you and her such as you will desire 
them to be, and that I shall joyfully embrace every 
occasion of proving it to you by my actions." x 

i " CEuvres de Louis XIV." 



CHAPTER XII 

Failure of Maria Theresa to gain the affection of Louis XIV — The King 
resumes his relations with the Comtesse de Soissons — But leaves her 
for Louise de la Valliere — The Marquis de Vardes — He becomes 
the countess's lover — And intrigues with her and the Comte de Guiche 
against La Valliere — The Spanish letter — Madame de Soissons and 
Vardes attempt to supplant La Valliere by Mile, de la Motte- 
Houdancourt — Discovery of the authors of the Spanish letter plot — 
Madame de Soissons exiled, but soon recalled to Court — Marriage of 
Marianne Mancini to the Due de Bouillon — Her patronage of men of 
letters — -Her friendship with La Fontaine — She urges him to compose 
his fables — And his tales — Her intrigue to secure the failure of 
Racine's " Phedre." 



"T^\ESTINY, which is above kings, has disposed of 
•*~^ us contrary to our inclinations," Louis XIV had 
said on the eve of Marie Mancini's marriage. If such 
were the case with the girl whom he had so passionately- 
loved, it was even more so with himself. It would, 
indeed, have been difficult to find a woman more un- 
suited in every way, save that of birth, to be the consort 
of the young King of France than the Infanta Maria 
Theresa. To retain the affections of Louis XIV, a 
woman required more than beauty : she needed to 
possess, and to possess in a very marked degree, the 
faculty of pleasing. This was, in great part, the secret 
of the influence of Marie Mancini, of the twelve years' 
empire of Madame de Montespan, of the long ascendency 
of Madame de Maintenon. The lack of it accounts 
for the fall of La Valliere from favour, notwithstanding 

243 



244 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

all the claims she had upon the consideration of her royal 
lover, the brief reign of Mile, de Fontanges, and the 
failure of many another empty-headed beauty to make 
more than the most transient impression upon his 
Majesty's heart. And it was in this, far more than in 
physical attractions, that poor Maria Theresa was found 
wanting. 

Her ignorance was profound ; she had come, for 
instance, to France unable even to read, much less to 
converse, in French, and appears to have experienced the 
greatest difficulty in obtaining even a superficial know- 
ledge of the language. Reared in the most cramping 
conditions of Spanish etiquette, her every word and action 
were governed by the most punctilious regard for 
ceremonial ; while her timidity was such that she was ill 
at ease in the company of any but her immediate attend- 
ants and the Queen-Mother, and positively trembled in 
the presence of the King, whom, however, she loved 
with an almost pathetic devotion. Under these circum- 
stances, it is scarcely a matter for surprise that Louis, 
unable to derive any pleasure from her society, should 
have sought companionship and amusement elsewhere. 
Nor had he far to seek. 

"The King," writes La Fare, "was on the most 
intimate terms with the Comtesse de Soissons, whom he 
visited every day." The intriguing Olympe had received, 
as the reward of her assistance in the Cardinal's little 
plot to keep Louis XIV and her sister apart, the post of 
Superintendent of the Queen's Household, in virtue of 
which she had become the greatest lady of the Court. 
But her ambition was far from satisfied : she dreamed of 
an empire such as no woman had exercised in France 
since the days of Diane de Poitiers, and was resolved to 
leave no means untried to attain her goal. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 245 

That, however, she was never to reach, nor even to 
approach. A flirtation with the charming Henrietta of 
England, who, at the end of March 1661, had become 
the wife of Monsieur, an affair which greatly exercised the 
minds of the Queen-Mother and Maria Theresa, though 
it would appear to have been innocent enough, was 
followed by the rise to favour of the gentle La Valliere ; 
and if his Majesty continued his visits to the Hotel de 
Soissons, it was but too evident that it was the high play 
which went on there rather than the beaux yeux of its 
mistress which was the attraction. 

But, though the King remained insensible to the 
blandishments of the countess, he was not insensible to 
the mortification which that lady was powerless to conceal 
at the cessation of those tender passages between them, 
from which she had hoped so much. Perhaps, he 
believed that, as with La Valliere, it was the man, and not 
the king, whom Madame de Soissons loved ; perhaps, 
he feared that the countess, ever a dangerous person to 
affront, might vent her displeasure on his inoffensive 
Louise. Any way, he determined to provide her with- 
out loss of time with a new gallant, and, accordingly, 
ordered his friend and confidant, the Marquis de Vardes, 
to lay siege to her heart. 

A terrible fellow was this Marquis de Vardes. Hand- 
some, brave, audacious, and wholly devoid of scruple, 
the anecdotes about him are innumerable. There was 
not a woman so virtuous or so highly placed to whose 
love he did not presume to aspire ; not a man, however 
great his skill with the rapier, whom he would not " call 
out " on the slightest provocation. He fought with the 
Due de Saint-Simon, father of the author of the famous 
" Memoires," and the Comte du Lude ; he overcame 
the resistance of the beautiful Duchesse de Roquelaure, 



246 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

whose virtue had until then withstood all assaults upon 
it, 1 and even dared to raise his eyes to the Princesse de 
Conti — she who had publicly rebuffed the advances of 
Louis XIV himself — and met with no worse fate than a 
gentle reproof; and there are, indeed, some chroniclers 
who affect to believe that his efforts in that quarter 
might eventually have been crowned with success, had it 
not been for the vigilance of her jealous husband. When 
we mention that to his skill in fencing and love-making 
he joined a biting wit and a talent for backstairs intrigue 
which it would have been difficult to rival, it will be 
admitted that M. de Vardes was a force to be reckoned 
with at the Court of le Grand Monarque. 

M. de Vardes hastened to obey his sovereign's com- 
mand ; he would have obeyed with equal promptitude, 
though, perhaps, with less willingness, if Madame de 
Soissons had been a withered dowager of three-score, 
instead of a handsome young woman of twenty-five, for 
he prided himself on being a consummate courtier, 
which meant that there was no action too dishonourable 
for him to commit in order to gain his Majesty's favour. 
Olympe, on her side, received his professions of devotion 
very graciously. Was not her new soupirant " the best- 
made and most amiable man in France " ? 2 She was 
calculating and ambitious, but she was an Italian and 
naturally ardent. Soon her liking for the marquis had 
developed into a veritable passion, which was patent to 

1 During one of his visits to the duchess, the duke, who was exceed- 
ingly jealous, returned home unexpectedly, and, to avoid compromising the 
lady, M. de Vardes was compelled to take refuge in a cellar, where he 
remained for two days. On emerging from his retreat, faint with hunger 
and thirst, and with a fine coat completely ruined, he decided that the game 
was not worth the inconveniences attached to it, and poor Madame de 
Roquelaure saw him no more. After an unsuccessful attempt to console 
herself with Monsieur, she died, so the chroniclers say, of a broken heart. 

2 " Memoires de Daniel de Cosnac." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 247 

every one, save her husband, who was the most un- 
suspicious, or, perhaps, the most complacent, of men. 
None of the countess's admirers need fear that they 
would be required to take shelter in the cellars of the 
Hotel de Soissons. 

But, though Olympe had found some consolation for 
her wounded vanity in the attentions of Vardes, she 
was none the less resolved to separate the King and La 
Valliere. She, therefore, took counsel with her lover 
and the Comte de Guiche, son of the Marechal de 
Gramont, a vain and foolish young man, 1 who had a 
grudge against La Valliere for having once rejected 
his addresses, and decided to raise a scandal before 
which, they judged, the sensitive girl must inevitably 
succumb. 

The plan of the conspirators was to send an anony- 
mous letter, containing a full, true, and particular account 
of the manner in which his Majesty spent a great part 
of his leisure, to the Queen, who, thanks to the 
exertions of Anne of Austria, was still under the delu- 
sion that there was "nothing but mere friendship" 
between her husband and La Valliere. This letter was 
composed by Madame de Soissons and Vardes, and trans- 
lated into Spanish by Guiche, who was well acquainted 
with that language, as Maria Theresa was still so 
ignorant of French that she might have failed to under- 
stand it, if the vernacular had been employed. It was 
then enclosed in an envelope addressed in the hand- 
writing of the Queen of Spain — which Madame de 
Soissons had stolen from her royal mistress's apart- 
ments — in order to make sure of its reaching its 
destination unopened. 

Fortunately for poor Maria Theresa's peace of mind, 

1 But in war, according to Madame de Sevigne, " a hero of romance." 



248 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

the letter fell into the hands of Donna Molina, a Spanish 
lady in the Queen's service, who, fearing that it might 
contain some bad news concerning the King of Spain, 
who was seriously ill, took upon herself the responsibility 
of opening it, and promptly carried it to Louis XIV. 

The King, having read the letter, " blushed, and ap- 
peared surprised at the adventure." He resolved that 
whoever had had the presumption to meddle with his 
private affairs should have abundant cause to rue their 
temerity ; but, as the person whom he employed to in- 
vestigate the matter was none other than Vardes him- 
self, it is hardly surprising that the culprits escaped 
detection. 

Undeterred by the failure of their plot, a few months 
later, Madame de Soissons and Vardes brought forward a 
rival to La Valliere, in the person of Mile, de la Motte- 
Houdancourt, one of the Queen's files d'honneur^ " who, 
though no sparkling beauty, had drawn away lovers from 
the celebrated Menneville(one of Fouquet's mistresses)." 1 
She very nearly succeeded in drawing away La Valliere's 
as well, for she contrived to persuade the King that, 
although hitherto of unblemished virtue, she was vio- 
lently in love with him, and wrote him the most eloquent 
letters, which had been composed for her by Vardes and 
the countess. Moreover, Louis's passion was stimulated 
by the rivalry of the Chevalier de Gramont, the hero of 
Count Hamilton's " Memoires," who, it appears, had 
never given the damsel a thought until he found that 
she was honoured by his sovereign's attentions, when 
he forthwith concluded that she must be worthy of his. 
He soon had reason to regret his folly in believing that 

1 Hamilton's "Memoires de Gramont." The King had paid this 
damsel considerable attention during the winter of 1657-8, but his grow- 
ing passion for Marie Mancini had prevented the affair going very far. 
See p. 75 supra. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 249 

love renders all things equal, for Mile, de la Motte, 
who had no use for such small fry as the chevalier when 
there was a king ready to fall at her feet, complained of 
his importunities to her royal admirer, and, one fine day, 
M. de Gramont received a peremptory order to retire 
from Court. 

Meanwhile, poor La Valliere, whom kind friends 
had, of course, taken care to inform of what was in 
progress, was plunged in the depths of despair. But 
Louis, piqued by the resistance of La Motte, who con- 
tinued to simulate virtue with considerable skill, paid no 
heed to her reproaches, and pressed his suit with such 
ardour that the Duchesse de Navailles, the Queen's 
dame d^honneur^ who was responsible for the good con- 
duct of La Motte and her colleagues, deemed it expedient 
to place iron gratings before the windows of her charges' 
apartments, in order to guard against accidents. This 
precautionary measure greatly incensed his Majesty, 
who stigmatized the duchess as " an extravagant re- 
former of the human race " ; and Vardes, quick to per- 
ceive his opportunity, now informed the King that he 
had discovered that the writer of the anonymous letter 
to Maria Theresa was Madame de Navailles herself; 
upon which, Louis, without apparently troubling to ex- 
amine the supposed proofs, promptly banished the poor 
lady and her husband from Court. 

At length, Mile, de la Motte, acting on instructions 
from the Comtesse de Soissons, professed herself ready 
to surrender. She made, however, one stipulation : the 
instant dismissal of La Valliere. Louis protested, but 
the lady was inexorable, and it is quite probable that she 
would have carried her point, had not Anne of Austria, 
who, though she had no love for La Valliere, had still 
less for the intriguing maid-of-honour, intercepted a 



250 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

letter written by one of Madame de Soissons's friends to 
La Motte, and containing overwhelming proof that the 
girl was a mere tool in the hands of others, and laid it 
before her son. Highly indignant at the manner in 
which he had been tricked, the King at once broke off 
all relations with La Motte, who was shortly afterwards 
dismissed from the Queen's service, for having received 
one of her admirers, the Marquis de Richelieu, in her 
apartments, in defiance of her Majesty's orders. 

After this second failure, Madame de Soissons had 
recourse to other and far more serious methods of war- 
fare against La Valliere — methods which were one day to 
lead to her disgrace and expulsion from France ; but of 
this we shall speak later on. 

In the meanwhile, it is satisfactory to know that, in 
1665, the real authors of the Spanish letter plot were 
discovered, and the poor Due and Duchesse de Navailles 
exculpated, recalled to Court, and reinstated in the royal 
favour. Had not the conspirators fallen out among them- 
selves, however, it is highly improbable that the truth 
would ever have come to light. The facts were as 
follows. 

The Comte de Guiche was in love with Henrietta of 
Orleans (Madame), who certainly seems to have given 
him every encouragement to hope for the best, or worst, 
though, as in the opinion of La Fare — a writer by no 
means inclined to credit any lady with virtue who had 
not given ample proof of possessing it — the princess 
was " virtuous, though a trifle coquettish," it is im- 
probable that the affair ever went beyond the bounds of a 
violent flirtation. 1 The Marquis de Vardes also aspired 

1 For further details in regard to the relations between Madame and 
the Comte de Guiche, see Madame de la Fayette's " Histoire de Madame 
Henriette d'Angleterre," and Julia Cartwright's (Mrs. Henry Ady) 
"Madame/' 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 251 

to add Madame to the list of his conquests, intrigued 
against Guiche, whose confidant he was, and succeeded in 
getting him sent to Lorraine. So cleverly did he manage 
the affair that Guiche left Paris without having the least 
suspicion that he owed his separation from his inamorata 
to the machinations of the marquis, to whom he arranged 
to entrust his correspondence with the princess. In virtue 
of his position as intermediary, Vardes enjoyed constant 
access to Madame, and, having won her confidence, pro- 
ceeded to make love to her on his own account. At first, 
Madame appeared far from displeased at his attentions, 
and drove the Comtesse de Soissons frantic with jealousy ; 
but her heart still belonged to the absent Guiche, and 
she declined to transfer it to the marquis. Angered by 
the rejection of his suit, Vardes refused to deliver up 
certain very tender letters which the lovers had confided 
to his care, and also informed the King of the contents 
of a letter of another kind, which Madame had entrusted 
to him for transmission to her brother, Charles II, in 
England. Not content with this treachery, he next 
proceeded to let fall some highly injudicious remarks 
concerning the princess, and one day observed to the 
Chevalier de Lorraine, who was paying court to one of 
Henrietta's filles d'honneur, that it was a pity that he 
wasted his time on the maid, when the mistress was such 
an easy conquest. This speech was duly reported to 
Madame, who complained to the King, with the result 
that one evening M. de Vardes supped in Bastille. 

On learning of the misfortune which had befallen her 
lover, the Comtesse de Soissons was beside herself with 
grief and indignation. Her wrath against Madame, 
who, she declared, had twice robbed her of him, w first 
by love and now by hatred," knew no bounds. Straight 
to the King she went, thinking only of revenge, and 



252 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

determined to repay the probable ruin of her lover by 
that of Guiche, against whom she proceeded to launch 
all manner of accusations. He had committed we know 
not what crime against the State ; he had attempted to 
betray Dunkerque to the English ; he had written the 
Spanish letter to the Queen. Madame^ to whom Guiche 
had, some time before, confided the truth about that 
too celebrated epistle, arrived upon the scene almost 
at the same moment, and denounced Vardes and the 
countess. Between the two furious women his Majesty 
must have spent a very unpleasant quarter of an hour, 
but, by way of compensation, he ended by learning 
everything. 

In the result, Vardes was removed from the Bastille to 
the citadel of Montpellier, and subsequently banished to 
his government of Aigues-Mortes, in Provence, where he 
remained until 1683; Guiche was sent on foreign service ; 
while Madame de Soissons and her husband — who, poor 
man! was entirely innocent of any complicity in the 
affair — were ordered to retire to Champagne, of which 
province the count was governor. 

Their exile was not, however, of long duration, and, at 
the end of a few months, Olympe returned to Paris and 
resumed her functions as Superintendent of the Queen's 
Household and her life of pleasure and intrigue. The 
King, however, seldom visited the Hotel de Soissons, 
and treated the countess somewhat coldly, if always with 
courtesy. To console herself for the loss of Vardes, 
Olympe took a disciple of his, the Marquis de Villeroi, 
called by the ladies " le Charmant" into favour, and ad- 
mitted him to her hotel on the same footing as that 
which that Titan of intrigue and gallantry had formerly 
occupied. If we are to believe the chansons of the time, 
M. de Villeroi had more than one coadjutor in his 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 253 

office of amant-en-titre; but that does not seem to be the 
opinion of the best-informed contemporary writers, and 
historians like Walckenaer, who accuse the countess of 
leading a life of depravity, probably do her an injustice. 
She was far too haughty and fastidious ever to stoop to 
vulgar amours. Let us, however, leave Olympe for a 
time to speak of the fortunes of her sisters. 

A few days before Mazarin's death, a visitor presented 
himself at the door of the Cardinal's sick-room, and re- 
quested a private interview with his Eminence. It was 
the famous Marechal Turenne, to whom Mazarin had 
once desired to wed Hortense, and he had come to ask 
for the hand of another of Mazarin's nieces, the thirteen- 
year-old Marianne, not for himself, but for his nephew, 
Maurice Godefroy de la Tour d'Auvergne, Due de 
Bouillon. Turenne had made the same request some 
time before, and the Cardinal had promised to consider 
the matter. Thinking, however, that Marianne was too 
young to marry, or, perhaps, that he might be able to find 
for her a more brilliant match, he had as yet returned no 
definite answer, and the result had been some coolness 
between him and the marshal. Now, however, that the 
Cardinal lay on his death-bed, Turenne resolved to be 
reconciled to his old friend, and, at the same time, to 
endeavour to gain his consent to the union of their 
families. It was some days, however, before he was 
able to obtain the private interview upon which he 
insisted, and when at length he was successful, the 
Cardinal seemed disinclined to discuss the question of 
the marriage, though he was delighted at the visit of 
the man whose sword had restored his fallen fortunes 
during the Fronde, declared that he would die his 
servant and friend, and, drawing a magnificent ring 



254 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

from one of his wasted fingers, begged the marshal to 
wear it in remembrance of him. 

Turenne returned to Paris without even broaching the 
matter which had brought him to Vincennes, and, 
following the example of the Marquis de la Meilleraye, 
had recourse to the good offices of the Bishop of Frejus. 
Whether he employed the same means of gaining over 
Ondedei to his interests as the Grand Master had found 
so efficacious, is uncertain ; but, any way, the bishop 
agreed to undertake the commission. This time, however, 
he failed. Mazarin, who was too near death to trouble 
about a marriage which, unlike that of Marie, was of no 
particular urgency, answered that Marianne, with her 
fortune, would never want for a husband, and refused to 
discuss the subject further. Nevertheless, Ondedei once 
more proved himself a valuable ally, for, after the 
Cardinal's death, he succeeded in persuading Anne of 
Austria, with whom he had great influence — had he not 
been the confidant of all Mazarin's private affairs ? — of 
the suitability of the match ; and on 22 April 1662, 
the marriage of Marianne and the Due de Bouillon was 
celebrated in the presence of the King and Queen, and 
was followed by brilliant fetes. 

The Due de Bouillon, a soldier like his celebrated 
uncle, and, like him, entirely devoted to his profession, 
proved a kind and indulgent husband, but he had no 
tastes in common with his wife. When his presence 
was not required in the field, hunting occupied the 
greater part of his time ; while the duchess, as may be 
anticipated from her fondness for verse-making, affected 
intellectual pursuits, and seemed never so happy as 
when surrounded by a throng of men and women of 
letters : Segrais, Benserade, Madame Deshoulieres, 
Menage, and others. 



3PP 




From a contemporary print 

MARIANNE MANCINI, DUCHESSE DE BOUILLON 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 255 

Early in the year 1665, the Due de Bouillon set out 
for Hungary, to take service, under Montecuculi, 
against the Turks, and being indisposed to leave his 
young wife, who had lately given birth to a son, unpro- 
tected amid the dangers of the Court, sent her to 
Chateau-Thierry, one of his country-seats, to await his 
return. 

Here it was that Marianne became intimate with 
the poet La Fontaine, who was to owe so much to 
her sympathy and encouragement, and, in return, to 
immortalize her in his verses. 

La Fontaine had then just returned to his native town 
from a three years' residence at Limoges, whither he 
had accompanied his relative Jannart, the friend of 
Fouquet and his substitute in the office of procureur- 
general to the Parliament of Paris. He was sadly in 
need of a new protector to replace his first Maecenas, 
languishing in his cell at Pignerol, and he was fortunate 
enough to find one in the Duchesse de Bouillon. It is 
probable that the poet had already met the duchess at 
Fouquet's hotel in Paris before her marriage, but now 
he was to be afforded an opportunity of seeing her 
more frequently, and of appreciating her intelligence 
and kindness. He appreciated her beauty also, for 
Marianne, though she could not boast the classic features 
of the lovely Hortense, was in her way hardly less 
charming, with a dazzling complexion, eyes which 
sparkled with merriment, a winning smile, and a pro- 
fusion of soft brown hair. Her figure, though some- 
what diminutive, was perfectly formed, and she had 
beautiful hands and feet, while an infinite grace charac- 
terised all her movements. 

La Fontaine soon conceived for her a warm and de- 



256 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

voted admiration, which he expressed both in prose and 

verse — 

Vous excellez en mille choses. 
Vous portez en tous lieux la joie et les plaisirs : 
Allez en des climats inconnus aux Zephirs, 

Les champs se vetiront de roses. 

It is thus that he speaks of her twenty-five years later, 
when she went to join her sister Hortense in England, 
and his tone remained always the same, " familiarly 
respectful and affectionately admiring." 

" Nothing authorises the supposition," remarks the 
poet's biographer, M. Georges Lafenestre, "that between 
the little grande dame and the humble, middle-aged 
bourgeois there had been any other relations than those 
of a very lively sympathy, the result of a common taste 
for the same intellectual pleasures, of the same horror 
of ennui, and of the same indulgence for the raptures of 
passion and the frailties of gallantry. La Fontaine has 
honestly revealed to us his sentiments, and we have no 
reason to suspect his frankness : 

Peut-on s'ennuyer en des lieux 
Honores par les pas, eclaires par les yeux 

D'une aimable et vive princesse, 
A pied blanc et mignon, a brune et longue tresse ? 
Nez trousse, c'est un charme, encor selon mon sens ? 
C'en est meme un des plus puissants. 
Pour moi le temps d'aimer est passe, je l'avoue ; 

Je merite qu'on me loue 

De ce libre et sincere aveu, 
Dont pourtant le public se souciera tres peu. 
Que j'aime ou n'aime pas, c'est pour lui meme chose ; 

Mais s'il arrive que mon cosur 
Retourne a l'avenir dans sa premiere erreur, 
Nez aquilins et longs n'en seront pas la cause. 1 

1 M. Georges Lafenestre's "La Fontaine." The last line of these 
verses was for Madame La Fontaine, whose nose resembled that of her 
husband. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 257 

However that may be, La Fontaine became one of 
the familiar friends of the Bouillon household, both in 
Paris and at Chateau-Thierry, and this intimacy was 
indeed a fortunate occurrence for his genius. Although 
he was forty-four years of age at the time when he made, 
or renewed, acquaintance with Madame de Bouillon, his 
reputation was not yet made ; he had only published a 
little volume, containing "Joconde, la Matrone d'Ephese" 
and other poems, and had printed a few fables. He 
found with this great lady of sixteen summers the spur 
which his idleness needed and a keen appreciation of 
his real powers. It was she who marked out the road 
along which he was to travel, and urged him resolutely 
to compose his fables, and her lively imagination 
furnished him with more than one subject. 1 Stimulated 
by his patroness, La Fontaine's tardy genius at last bore 
fruit, and so hard did he work under her supervision 
that he published two years later the first six books 
of his fables. " But," says the lady's biographer, 
M. Amedee Renee, "all must be confessed; it was 
not only fables which the Duchesse de Bouillon urged 
the poet to compose. De Retz pretends that Mazarin 
had pleased Richelieu and his colleagues by * libertine 
tales of Italy.' These tales, in fact, had obtained a 
great popularity, whatever it was that had opened the 
door to them, and the courtiers learned Italian to read 
Boccaccio and Poggio, as one learns it to-day to sing 
a cavatina. The Duchesse de Bouillon took pleasure 
in the tales which La Fontaine extracted from "The 
Decameron " ; it is a taste that we have no longer, but 
her time explains and excuses it. Women more severe 

1 It was Madame de Bouillon, and not, as some writers have stated, 
Madame de Sabliere, who surnamed La Fontaine " le Fablier" which 
summed up in a single word his vocation. 



258 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

than Marianne amused themselves in similar fashion ; 
Madame de Sevigne and her rigorous daughter 1 did not 
object to speak of it in their letters. La Fontaine, 
charged to amuse his merry chatelaine, enlarged, accord- 
ingly, his collection of tales as well as fables. It was 
not, of course, at the period when she was sixteen years 
old that Madame de Bouillon showed so pronounced 
a taste for this light literature ; she did not encourage 
this badinage until later, and it was to make a diversion 
to his fables. 

When the Due de Bouillon returned from Hungary 
and carried off his wife to Paris, La Fontaine followed 
his patroness, who presented him to her sisters, Mesdames 
de Soissons and de Mazarin, her brother, the Due de 
Nevers, who also cultivated the Muses, and her brother- 
in-law the Due d'Albret, afterwards Cardinal de Bouillon, 
and obtained for him the place of gentleman of the 
chamber to Madame. 

With the advent of La Fontaine, came more distin- 
guished members of the Republic of Letters to the 
Hotel de Bouillon than those who had formerly been 
seen there, among them Moliere and the old Corneille. 
For Corneille the duchess seems to have cherished 
almost as profound an admiration as Madame de 
Sevigne, and it was this admiration, coupled with her 
friendship for Madame Deshoulieres, whose verses 
Racine had, perhaps unduly, depreciated, which probably 
led, in 1677, to her ill-advised attempt to sustain against 
the author of { ' Andromaque " and " Iphigenie," a young 

1 The Comtesse de Grignan. But was Madame de Grignan quite so 
" rigorous " as M. Renee seems to suppose ? There was some talk, of an 
affair which she had with the Due de Vivonne, Madame de Montespan's 
brother, at Marseilles ; and the unusual bitterness with which her mother 
speaks of that nobleman would appear to indicate that it was not wholly 
without foundation. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 259 

and conceited poet named Pradon, author of a couple of 
indifferent tragedies. 

Racine was then at work on his immortal "Phedre," and 
the duchess persuaded her protegi to compose a play 
upon the same subject, to be produced at the Theatre 
Guenegaud simultaneously with the appearance of 
Racine's work at the Hotel de Bourgogne. Such 
rivalry was, of course, legitimate enough ; five years 
before, Paris had witnessed a similar duel between 
Racine and Corneille over the subject of Titus and 
Berenice, though, on this occasion, both plays had been 
written at the suggestion of Madame^ and the secret 
had been so carefully kept that, until their works 
were actually in rehearsal, the two poets were alto- 
gether unaware that they were competing against one 
another. 

But the same, unfortunately, cannot be said of the 
methods of Madame de Bouillon to ensure the success 
of Pradon's play and the failure of Racine's. All went 
well at the Hotel de Bourgogne the first evening, the 
management having taken the precaution to exclude all 
whom they suspected of being unfavourably disposed 
towards the author, and the play was accorded a recep- 
tion which could not fail to satisfy the most exacting 
dramatist. The following evening, however, matters 
were very different ; to the chagrin of Racine and the 
astonishment of the company, every box on the first 
tier was empty ! The same thing occurred on the 
following evening and the next after that ; while, to 
increase the mystery and the poet's mortification, the 
boxes at the Theatre Guenegaud were reported as 
crowded with applauding spectators. The explanation 
was that the Duchesse de Bouillon had adopted the in- 
genious device of engaging in advance all the best seats 



260 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

at both houses, filling those at the Theatre Guenegaud 
with her friends and leaving the others empty. 

The feelings of Racine may be imagined, for that not 
inconsiderable section of the public which judges of the 
merits of a play solely by results was beginning to assert 
that his tragedy was a failure and Pradon's a brilliant 
success. After, however, the trick had been played for 
three more nights, he triumphed. Perhaps Madame de 
Bouillon had begun to find her experiment, which is 
said to have cost her 15,000 francs, the equivalent of 
five times as much to-day, somewhat too costly a one to 
be continued indefinitely; or possibly Racine, discovering 
the tactics of his opponents, had appealed to the King 
for protection, and the duchess had received a hint from 
his Majesty that such practices could not be permitted. 
Any way, the lady withdrew from the field, and, with 
her retirement, the two "Phedres" speedily found their re- 
spective levels. Pradon's play, at best a very mediocre 
work, had to be withdrawn after fifteen or sixteen repre- 
sentations ; while Racine's enjoyed a brilliant run, and will 
hold a foremost place in the classic repertoire of the 
Theatre-Francais for all time. Nevertheless, in spite of 
its ultimate success, Racine never forgot the mortification 
to which he had been subjected, which, there can be no 
doubt, contributed not a little to his decision to renounce 
writing for the stage. As for Pradon, he paid dearly for 
being the hero of a coterie which used him to wreak their 
spite on a great master of his art, by remaining the type 
of the worthless poet. However, he was not without 
talent, and his "Regulus," in which Baron achieved a great 
success, remained in the repertoire for many years. 



CHAPTER XIII 

Hortense and the Due de Mazarin — Eccentricities of the duke — His 
jealousy and tyrannical treatment of his wife — He takes possession of 
her jewels — Temporary separation between them — They are recon- 
ciled, but quarrel anew — Hortense sent to the Abbey of Chelles and 
afterwards to the Couvent des Filles de Sainte-Marie — Sidonie de 
Lenoncourt, Marquise de Courcelles — Practical jokes played by the 
marchioness and Hortense upon the nuns — The " penitents " trans- 
ferred to the Abbey of Chelles — Unsuccessful attempt of M. de 
Mazarin to seize his wife — The Cour des Enquetes orders the 
duchess to be set at liberty — M. de Mazarin appeals to the Grande 
Chambre — Hortense leaves Paris and flies to Lorraine — Disgrace of 
her lover, the Chevalier de Rohan — Madame de Mazarin arrives at 
Milan. 

*C^AR less happy in her married life than her youngest 
sister was Hortense, though never did any one 
embark upon it under apparently more favourable 
auspices. Nature and Fortune had lavished upon her 
their richest gifts. She was one of the most beautiful 
women of her time. 

Hortense eut du ciel en partage 
La grace, la beaute, l'esprit, 

sang La Fontaine. She had inherited the bulk of her 
uncle's vast wealth, and had for her residence the finest 
part of that wonderful Palais-Mazarin, filled with price- 
less pictures and the rarest marbles, and which surpassed 
the Louvre itself in the richness of its interior. She 
was a duchess, their Majesty's cousin, courted and 
adulated by all. Finally, she was married to a man who 
loved her passionately, and for whom, at the time of her 

261 



262 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

marriage at least, she appears to have entertained a strong 
liking. Her life ought, then, to have been one of the 
happiest ; the very reverse was the case. 

For this unfortunate state of affairs Hortense herself 
was, in a great measure, to blame. Her coquetry, in- 
curable frivolity, foolishness, and complete absence of 
moral sense, were not calculated to please even the most 
complacent of husbands; but, in justice to her, it should 
be added that even a paragon of virtue would have found 
it difficult to live on amicable terms with the Due de 
Mazarin. 

Armand de la Porte, Due de Mazarin, was of sin- 
gularly unprepossessing countenance (" He bore on his 
face the justification of his wife's conduct," wrote 
Madame de Sevigne) ; but, in other respects, he seemed 
likely to make an excellent husband. His life, in a licen- 
tious age, had been beyond reproach ; he was well 
educated, open-handed, a charming companion, and dis- 
tinguished for his courtly manners. But some latent 
germ of insanity there must have been lurking in his 
temperament, which, under the influence of conjugal 
jealousy and religious fervour, changed him, before he 
had been married many months, 1 into one of the most 
ridiculous and, at the same time, the most tyrannical of 
husbands to be met with outside the domain of fiction, 

1 Only a few weeks after their marriage, a very compromising note 
from Hortense to the Chevalier de Rohan was intercepted by M. de 
Mazarin, a propos of which we find Louis XIV writing to the Bishop of 

•* * " FONTAINEBLEAU, 21 April 1 66 1. 

" I have already done in advance all that you tell me is necessary. I 
ought to be very displeased at what has occurred ; but I wish to hope that 
the person of whom you speak will conduct herself better in the future 
than she has in the past. I am already aware of all the scandal that there has 
been, and I confess to you that what causes me the most pain, is the thought 
that a person who bears the name of so great a man should give occasion 
for every one to laugh." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 263 

only not mad enough to be shut up, because Louis XIV 
found his inexhaustible purse too convenient to borrow 
from. 1 

" He was the Alceste of good morals, but the devotees 
by whom he was surrounded made of him an Orgon." 
He threw himself into the most extravagant devotion ; 
he became a seer of visions, a dreamer of dreams. One 
day, he sought an audience of the King, and gravely 
told him that he had been informed by the Angel 
Gabriel that some terrible misfortune would befall his 
Majesty, if he did not immediately break off his con- 
nection with Louise de la Valliere. 2 He conceived the 
most unheard of scruples, and did not hesitate to give 
practical expression to them. The magnificent collection 
of statues and paintings in the Palais- Mazarin shocked 
his views, nor did he content himself, like Tartuffe, with 
throwing his handkerchief over the Michelangelos and 
Titians which offended him by an improper nudity ; but, 
with a hammer in one hand and a paint-pot in the other, 
made a tour of the galleries, demolishing the statues and 
smearing over the pictures. 

The King, hearing of what was going on, deputed 
Colbert to endeavour to stop the destruction, and one can 
imagine the despair of Mazarin's former intendant, who 
knew almost to a sol what the offending masterpieces had 

1 Under date 13 September 1661, we find Louis XIV writing to the 
duke : " My Cousin, after having caused the Surintendant des Finances 
(Fou cruet) to be arrested, of which fact you are aware, I am in need of 
the two million livres which you offered to lend me." In a second letter, 
the King thanks M. de Mazarin for having foreseen his request by des- 
patching a gentleman, etc. Another time, his Majesty thanks him for the 
present he has made him of a superb Spanish horse ; and, in a fourth letter, 
dated 17 November, 1663, expresses his thanks for the assistance he has 
offered towards bringing water to Versailles. Letters cited by Amedee 
Renee, " Les Nieces de Mazarin." 

2 " Memoires de l'Abbe de Choisy." 



264 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

cost his patron, at the sight which met his eyes on enter- 
ing the galleries and finding the duke in the midst of his 
operations. His remonstrances were ill received; but 
eventually he succeeded in prevailing upon the madman 
to desist, though not before the collection had suffered 
severely from the piety of its owner. Louis XIV, for 
the reasons of which we have already spoken, contented 
himself with mildly expressing his regret at M. de 
Mazarin's proceedings. Visiting the Louvre one day 
and noticing a hammer, he remarked to Perrault : "There 
is the weapon which M. de Mazarin makes so much 
use of." 

A taste for lawsuits was another of this nobleman's 
peculiarities ; he is said to have had three hundred, and 
to have lost nearly all of them. " I am very pleased," 
he observed, " for actions to be brought against me in 
regard to the possessions which I have received from the 
Cardinal. I believe them all wrongly acquired ; and 
when I have a judgment given in my favour, I regard it 
as a title to the property, and my conscience is at rest." 

" He used to cast lots for his servants," says Saint- 
Simon, " in such a way that the cook became his 
intendant and the floor-scrubber his secretary. The lot, 
according to him, indicated the will of God." The same 
chronicler relates that once, when a fire broke out at one 
of his country-seats, he refused to allow the servants to 
extinguish it, declaring that to do so would be to inter- 
fere with the intentions of the Almighty. 

But it was his unfortunate young wife who had to 
bear the brunt of his vagaries. If we are to believe only 
half of what she tells us in her "Memoires," he must have 
led her a truly terrible life. He began by conceiving a 
violent jealousy of the attentions paid her by the King, 
and, in order to shield her from this supposed danger, 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 265 

kept her in a state of perpetual locomotion. "As he 
feared for me to remain in Paris," she writes, " he con- 
tinually marched me about to his estates and govern- 
ments. During the first three or four years of our 
marriage, I made three or four journeys into Alsace and 
as many into Brittany, besides several others to Nevers, 
Maine, Bourbon, Sedan, and other places. He has often 
made me undertake a journey of two hundred leagues 
when I was enceinte and very near my confinement. 
My relations and friends were apprehensive of the 
dangers to which he exposed my health, and endeavoured 
to make him sensible of them, but for a long time in 
vain." 1 These continual journeys, however, were, after 
all, only a small part of what the lady had to suffer at 
his hands, and, "as she had no greater pleasure than that 
of seeing him," she assures us that she might have 
endured them, had it not been for the tyranny of his 
proceedings. He was jealous of every one who addressed 
or approached her, high or low, man or woman. " I 
could not speak to a servant, but he was dismissed the 
next day. I could not receive two visits in succession 
from the same man, but he was forbidden the house. If 
I showed any preference for one of my maids, she was at 
once taken away from me. He would have liked me to 
see no one in the world, except himself. Above all, he 
could not endure that I should see either his relations or 
my own — the latter, because they had begun to take my 
part, his own, because they no more approved of his 
conduct than did mine." 

He would not even suffer her to sleep in peace. " No 
sooner were the beautiful eyes of his companion closed," 
says the duchess's friend Saint-Evremond, " than this 
amiable husband, to whose black imagination the devil 

1 " Memoires dc la Duchesse de Mazarin." 



266 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

was always present, awoke her to make her share his 
nocturnal visions. They lighted torches, they searched 
everywhere ; but the only devil whom Madame de 
Mazarin found was the one who was with her in bed." 1 

He found fault with everything she did. "The 
innocence of my recreations occasioned him as much 
annoyance as if they had been criminal. Sometimes he 
said it was a sin to play with my servants at cock-all. 
At other times he said it was a heinous crime to go to 
bed late. He often declared that one could not in con- 
science go to Court, and much less to the play ; some- 
times my devotions were too short. In fine, his peevish- 
ness upon my account was such that I verily believe, if 
any one had seriously asked him how and in what manner 
he desired me to live, he would not have been able to 
agree with himself about the matter." 2 

Hortense, according to her own account, bore her hus- 
band's eccentricities with the most exemplary patience ; 
but when, " not content with making her pass the best 
years of her life in unparalleled slavery," the duke began 
to squander her property in all directions, and " she saw 
that, by his incredible profuseness, her son, who might 
have been the richest gentleman in France, was in 
danger of becoming the poorest," her fortitude was 
exhausted. The crisis came when, on returning home 
one night from some Court function, she found that her 
husband had taken advantage of her absence to seize 
upon her jewellery. She demanded the reason of his 
conduct, and was told that she was of such a liberal and 
generous disposition that he feared that, if she were 

1 Saint-Evremond relates several other instances of M. de Mazarin's 
eccentricities, and accuses him of abominable vices, for which, he says, he 
was wont to declare that he had found justification in Holy Scripture. 
Saint-Evremond, however, was not, in this case, an impartial witness. 

2 "Memoires de la Duchesse de Mazarin." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 267 

allowed to retain possession of her jewels, she might be 
tempted to give some of them away, and that he, therefore, 
considered it advisable to take them into his own keeping. 
Hortense angrily insisted on their immediate restora- 
tion ; and, on the duke's refusal, left the room and went 
to consult her brother, the Due de Nevers, whose hotel, 
as we have mentioned, adjoined the Palais-Mazarin, of 
which it had originally formed part. Here she found 
the Duchesse de Bouillon, who told her that " she was 
well served, since she had suffered so much already with- 
out complaint," and despatched a Madame de Balenzane, 
who happened to be with her, to remonstrate with M. 
de Mazarin. The duke, however, refused to see her, pre- 
sumably being of opinion that to receive a visit from a 
lady at so late an hour would be a highly improper pro- 
ceeding, and sent word that he intended leaving for 
Saint-Germain on the morrow. 

Hortense spent the night at the Hotel de Bouillon, 
where, next morning, a family council was held, which 
deputed the Comtesse de Soissons to bring the matter 
to the notice of the King. Louis XIV, unwilling to 
offend so useful a friend as the Due de Mazarin, sug- 
gested a temporary separation between the parties, and 
Hortense accordingly went to the Hotel de Soissons, 
where she remained for two months. At the end of 
that time, the King ordered her to return to her hus- 
band, and she was obliged to obey, though her jewels 
remained in M. de Mazarin's possession, and the only 
concession she was able to obtain was the dismissal of 
some waiting-women whom the duke had placed about 
her for the purpose of spying upon her actions. 

Scarcely, however, had the duchess set foot in the 
Palais-Mazarin than she had a new and violent quarrel 
with her husband, due, she tells us, to the duke having 



268 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

retaliated for the dismissal of his spies by getting rid of 
one of her most trusted attendants. She attempted to 
escape from the house ; M. de Mazarin hurried forward 
to bar her passage, but she brushed past him and ran 
into the courtyard. The duke rushed to a window and 
shouted to the servants to shut the gate, but, "seeing 
her in tears, no one dared to obey," and, hastening into 
the street, where a crowd of people, attracted by the 
uproar, had assembled, she made her way to the Hotel 
de Nevers. 

After a few days, the family again intervened, and 
a reconciliation was effected. It did not last long, how- 
ever, and, after more grotesque scenes, Hortense con- 
sented to retire to the Abbey of Chelles, while M. de 
Mazarin set out for his government of Alsace, where he 
was at war with the intendant, for his governments 
resembled his household. Finding, on his return, that 
his wife was enjoying too much liberty at Chelles, where 
the abbess, although his own aunt, had warmly espoused 
her cause, he obtained permission from the King to re- 
move her to the Couvent des Filles-de-Sainte-Marie, 
situated near the Bastille. 

The luckless Hortense would no doubt have in- 
finitely preferred the Bastille itself as a residence, for 
the convent in question was a most rigorous institution. 
However, she was fortunate enough to find there a 
companion in misfortune in the person of Sidonie de 
Lenoncourt, Marquise de Courcelles, who had been 
incarcerated there for somewhat similar reasons. 

The history of Sidonie de Lenoncourt, who has been 
termed the Manon Lescaut of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, was a particularly sad one. Heiress of a wealthy 
and noble house, she had been very carefully brought 
up at the Couvent de Saint-Loup, at Orleans, of which 




From an engraving after the painting by Mignard 
ARMAND DE LA PORTE, DUC DE MAZARIN ET DE LA MEILLERAYE 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 269 

her aunt was abbess. However, Colbert, wishing to 
enrich and, at the same time, ennoble his family, con- 
ceived the idea of marrying her to his brother, and, by 
order of the King, she was removed from the convent 
and brought to the Hotel de Soissons, to receive a very 
different education, under the eye of the Princesse de 
Carignan, Olympe Mancini's mother-in-law. Here the 
beautiful and innocent young girl attracted the notice 
of Louvois, who fell madly in love with her. As the 
result of a shameful compact, it was arranged that the 
Marquis de Courcelles, a needy and worthless man, 
should have the lady's fortune, while Louvois was to be 
granted every facility for pressing his dishonourable suit. 
In this he was so far successful that Sidonie consented 
to become his mistress ; but he was never able to gain 
her affection, which was bestowed on the Marquis de 
Villeroi, Madame de Soissons's admirer. To this suc- 
ceeded other attachments, and her unworthy husband, 
who had only been waiting his opportunity to get full 
control of her fortune, availed himself of this pretext 
to have her shut up in the Couvent des Filles-de-Sainte- 
Marie. 

The two captives naturally became sworn friends, and 
rumour asserted that they relieved the tedium of their 
existence by turning the convent upside down and 
perpetrating all sorts of practical jokes on their unfor- 
tunate guardians, though Hortense, in her " Memoires," 
declares that they were shamefully maligned. "As 
Madame de Courcelles was very amiable and very 
entertaining," she writes, " I had the complacency to 
join with her in some pleasantries which she played upon 
the nuns. A hundred ridiculous tales about this were 
carried to the King, who was told that we put ink in 
the holy-water basin to bespatter the good ladies, that 



270 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

we ran through the dormitories, accompanied by a pack 
of dogs, shouting out * Tayaut I Tayaut I * and such- 
like things ; all of which were absurdly false or grossly 
exaggerated. For example, having asked for some water 
to wash our feet, the nuns disapproved and refused our 
request, just as if we were there to observe the regula- 
tions. It is true that we filled a large coffer which stood 
in our dormitory with water, and, the boards of the 
floor being very loosely joined together, the water which 
overflowed leaked through this wretched floor and 
wetted the beds of the good sisters. This accident was 
talked about as if it had been something which we 
had done of design." 1 

However that may be, the two penitents seem to 
have led the poor daughters of Sainte-Marie such a 
life that they petitioned the King for their removal, and, 
much to the relief of all parties, the ladies were trans- 
ferred to the Abbey of Chelles, with whose superior 
Hortense had contrived to ingratiate herself during her 
former residence there. This change was by no means 
to the taste of M. de Mazarin, who, a few days later, 
appeared before the convent, accompanied by a troop 
of cavalry and armed with an authorisation from the 
Archbishop of Paris to enter and seize his wife. The 
abbess refused to admit him, and handed the keys of 
the convent to Hortense, who appeared at the grill and 
brandished them defiantly in the face of her discomfited 
lord. M. de Mazarin withdrew, in a very ill humour, 
uttering terrible threats ; but, the following morning, 
Hortense espied from her window a large body of 
horse advancing towards the abbey. Believing that 
it was her Bluebeard returning with reinforcements 
and his friend the archbishop's authority to force an 

1 " Memoires de la Duchesse de Mazarin." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 271 

entry, she was overcome with fear and hid herself in 
the chimney of her room, where she stuck fast, and 
was nearly suffocated by the soot. With considerable 
difficulty she was rescued, to find, to her joy, that the 
horsemen whose appearance had so alarmed her were 
a party of friends, headed by the Due and Duchesse de 
Bouillon and the Comte de Soissons, who, having learned 
of M. de Mazarin's proceedings, were hastening to her 
succour. 

In the meantime, Hortense had brought an action 
against her husband before the Cour des Enquetes of the 
Parliament of Paris. This court, " composed," says the 
duchess, " almost exclusively of young men, not one of 
whom but was eager to serve me," decreed that she 
should be set at liberty and reinstated in the Palais- 
Mazarin, while her husband was to reside at the Arsenal, 
the official residence of the Grand Master of the Artillery. 
The duke, however, refused to accept this decree and 
immediately appealed to the Grande Chambre, which, 
Hortense tells us, being composed for the most part of 
elderly counsellors, would be naturally more inclined to 
favour the husband than the wife. From which it would 
appear that the lady had not a very high opinion of the 
judges of her time. 

Foreseeing that the appeal was likely to go against her, 
the duchess resolved to await the decision of the court 
with her sister, the Constabless Colonna, at Rome. Her 
brother, the Due de Nevers, signified his approval of her 
resolution, and her devoted admirer, the Chevalier de 
Rohan, 1 promised her his assistance. Accordingly, one 
night, at the end of June 1668, Hortense, disguised as 
a man and accompanied by one of her waiting-women, 

1 Louis de Rohan, younger son of Louis VII, Due de Rohan, Prince 
de Guemenee. 



272 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

similarly attired, and an equerry of the chevalier named 
Couberville, left Paris on horseback, and rode without 
drawing rein, except to change horses, to Nancy. Here 
she was well received by Charles IV of Lorraine, who, 
ever the slave of the fair, naturally sympathised with 
her misfortunes, and gave her a troop of his guards to 
escort her as far as Geneva. 

A few hours after she had left Paris, M. de Mazarin 
was informed of her flight, upon which he rushed off to 
the Louvre, and, although it was then three o'clock in 
the morning, insisted on awakening the King, to demand 
that he would cause the duchess to be pursued and 
brought back. But his Majesty declined to interfere, 
and is said to have expressed some surprise that the 
Angel Gabriel, who had been so solicitous concerning 
himself and La Valliere, should have omitted to warn the 
duke of his wife's intentions. 

M. de Mazarin, however, derived some consolation 
from the fact that the Grande Chambre shortly after- 
wards passed a decree authorising him to apprehend 
his wife in whatever place she might happen to be, 
encouraged by which he next brought an action against 
the Due de Nevers and the Chevalier de Rohan as 
accomplices of her flight. In this he failed, but Hortense, 
having had the imprudence to write a very tender letter 
to Rohan, in which she spoke of the happiness which 
would follow their reunion, it was intercepted by her 
husband ; and Louis XIV, happening to be in one of 
those austere moods in which he sought to atone for the 
laxity of his own morals by extreme severity towards 
other backsliders, deemed it his duty to disgrace the 
chevalier and deprive him of all his offices. The un- 
fortunate Rohan, already overwhelmed by debt, found 
himself almost ruined. To better his fortunes he, some 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 273 

years later, entered into treasonable negotiations with 
the Dutch, but was detected, brought to trial, and 
beheaded in front of the Bastille, on 27 November 
1674. 

In the meanwhile, Hortense, still escorted by Couber- 
ville, of whom we shall have a good deal to say presently, 
continued her flight, crossed the Alps in safety, and at 
the beginning of July arrived at Milan, where she found 
Marie and the Constable, who had travelled thither to 
meet her. 



CHAPTER XIV 

Marie and the Constable Colonna — Happiness of their early married 
life — Eccentric conduct of the Constabless — Probable explanation — 
Birth of a son — A sumptuous bed — Birth of two other sons — Separa- 
tion di letto between the Constable and his wife — Liaison of Colonna 
with the Marchesa Paleotto — Arrival of the Duchesse de Mazarin in 
Italy — The " Chevalier " de Couberville — Quarrel between the Due 
de Nevers and Hortense — Scene between Marie and Couberville — The 
"chevalier" is arrested and imprisoned in a fortress — Hortense enters 
a convent — An embarrassing situation — Escape of Madame de Mazarin 
from the convent — Her lovers — She returns to France with her 
brother — M. de Mazarin endeavours to have her arrested at Nevers — 
Intervention of the King — The Duchess accepts a pension and returns 
to Italy. 

AND what of Marie during the seven years which had 
passed since her arrival in Italy ? 
For the first five years of her married life, Marie had 
lived very happily with the Constable. Colonna, who 
seems to have fallen passionately in love with his wife at 
first sight, proved the kindest and most indulgent of 
husbands. He allowed her the fullest liberty to live a la 
Fratifaise, that is to say, to visit and receive whomever 
and whenever it pleased her, to the great displeasure of 
the Roman nobles, who deemed it a very bad example for 
their wives, whom they kept shut up in their palaces and 
guarded with the most jealous care. He overwhelmed 
her with attentions and presents, anticipated her slightest 
wish, and was perpetually inventing some new entertain- 
ment for her diversion. Marie, who was naturally of 
an affectionate disposition, did not long remain insensible 

274 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 275 

to her husband's devotion and began to feel for him the 
warmest regard. " Although Italian customs were but 
little to my taste," she writes, "the inclination that I 
had begun to entertain for the Constable rendered them 
more endurable to me ; for, to be brief, he neglected 
nothing which could give me pleasure ; it would be 
impossible to describe his attentions and kindness, and, 
finally, 1 may say that I am the one whom he loved the 
most and the longest." l 

Unhappily for Marie, since her arrival in Italy, she 
was much changed from the girl whom we have seen at 
the Court of France. Then, it is true, she had been 
headstrong and self-willed, though, perhaps, not more so 
than many of her countrywomen. Now, however, she 
gradually began to develop eccentricities which became 
a source of grave uneasiness to her husband and those 
about her. In the autumn of 1662, she became 
enceinte, to the great delight of the Constable, who was 
intensely anxious for an heir. Marie was no less anxious 
to gratify his wish ; but, instead of obeying the instruc- 
tions of her physicians and taking the precautions usual 
in such circumstances, she indulged in all kinds of 
forbidden amusements, and on several occasions, in 
spite of the remonstrances of her husband, insisted on 
following the chase and remained in the saddle nearly 
the entire day. The result was a miscarriage, followed 
by an attack of fever, and it was some weeks ere she was 
able to leave her bed. 

" The conduct of the Constabless under such grave 
circumstances," writes Lucien Perey, "would be im- 
possible to explain, if one did not trace these vagaries to 
their source. In our opinion, it is certain that the brain- 
fever, accompanied by convulsions, by which she was 
1 " La Veritc dans son jour." 



276 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

attacked during her journey to Italy, caused brain- 
trouble, of which she kept the trace all her life. We 
do not mean that she was insane in the fullest extent of 
the word, but undoubtedly her mind was deranged on 
some points, and persons at her house remarked, when 
observing her closely, that she seemed in a state of con- 
tinual uneasiness and agitation." 1 The most common 
form which her affection took was an inability to reside 
in any one spot for more than a few weeks at a time. 
Although her husband was required to pass the greater 
part of each year in Rome, she wished to be perpetually 
travelling, no matter in what condition of health she 
might happen to be, now to their country-seats at 
Marino and Sisterna, now to Naples or Venice, anon to 
Milan or some other town, at which she had no sooner 
arrived than she wished to be on the move again. The 
Constable was so devoted to his wife that he bore the 
inconvenience and expense — for he invariably insisted 
on her travelling in semi-royal state — attendant upon 
these continual peregrinations without murmuring. But 
alas ! this feverish restlessness was ere long to be 
followed by other and graver eccentricities, which, as her 
biographer suggests, were no doubt attributable to the 
effects of the illness which had so nearly cost her her life 
at Loretto. 

Nevertheless, as has been said, the first years of her 
married life were happy. On 7 April 1664, she con- 
soled her husband for his previous disappointment by 
bearing him a son, who was named Filippo, and bore the 
title of Principe di Palliano. Great was the joy of the 
Constable and his relatives at this auspicious event, and 
Marie found herself overwhelmed with costly presents 
and congratulations. According to custom, the members 

1 "Une Princesse romaine au xvii e si£cle: Marie Mancini Colonna." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 277 

of the Sacred College and all the Roman nobility called 
at the Casa Colonna to felicitate the princess, and were 
received by her reclining on a sumptuous bed, " the 
novelty no less than the magnificence of which filled 
every one with admiration." " It was," she writes, " a 
species of shell, which seemed to float in the midst of a 
sea artistically represented, and which served as its foun- 
dation. The posts stood on the cruppers of four sea- 
horses, mounted by sirens, so admirably sculptured and 
with their material so brilliantly gilded that they seemed 
to be made of the precious metal itself. Ten or twelve 
little Cupids served as clasps for the curtains, which 
were of a very rich golden brocade and were permitted 
to hang loosely, so as not to conceal anything which 
deserved to be seen in this sumptuous ornament." 1 

The birth of Marie's first son was followed by that of 
two others, baptized respectively Marco Antonio and 
Carlo, whose advent was welcomed by Lorenzo Colonna 
with scarcely less pleasure than he had shown at the 
birth of his heir, and the princess's happiness seemed com- 
plete, when, on a sudden, she announced to her husband 
her intention to live no longer with him as his wife. 

Marie, in her " Memoires," written, we must remem- 
ber, while her husband was still alive, gives the follow- 
ing reason for her decision : — 

" But having given birth to this child [her third son] 
to the apparent danger of my life, I took a resolution to 
avoid for the future all occasion of exposing myself to 
the like by giving birth to another. The Constable's 
consent being necessary to make valid a resolution of 
this nature, I pressed him for it and obtained it, and 
have ever since found him, in this particular, a man of 
his word." s 1 „ La Yirh€ dans son j our# » 

2 ibid. 



278 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

The scandal-loving gazettes of the time, which do not 
fail to mention the separazione di letto between the Prince 
and Princess Colonna, attribute the latter's resolution to 
a more unusual cause, namely, to the prediction of an 
astrologer (Marie, like her father and mother, and, in 
a lesser degree, the Cardinal, was a firm believer in 
astrology, and was wont to attribute all her troubles to 
the malign influence of the stars), 1 who had predicted 
that the birth of a fourth child would be followed by 
her own death. 

The real reason, however, was very different. It 
appears that shortly after her third son was born, Marie 
received an anonymous letter, informing her that the 
Constable was very far from being the faithful husband 
she imagined him to be, and that, some time before, he 
had become the father of a little girl. The name of the 
mother does not seem to be known, but the child was 
brought up with great care in a convent at Rome, where 
she died, in 1750, at the age of eighty-four. 2 

From what we already know of the pride and violence 
of Marie's character, it is easy to conceive the anger 
which must have possessed her on the discovery of her 
husband's infidelity. The idea of sharing his affection 
with another woman was intolerable to her, and she im- 
mediately informed him that henceforth they must live 
as friends only. Colonna, who adored his wife, did 
not acquiesce at all readily in this arrangement, and strove 
by every possible argument to shake her resolution ; 
but Marie was inexorable. 

It was not long before she had cause to regret the 

1 Between 1670 and 1672, Marie published three curious volumes, 
containing a number of strange predictions, anagrams and calculations 
based on the influence of the stars. 

2 Lucien Perey, " Une Princesse romaine au xvii e si&cle : Marie 
Mancini Colonna." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 279 

hasty decision to which her wounded pride had urged her, 
for Colonna, who was of an exceedingly ardent tempera- 
ment, "did not neglect to find compensation elsewhere for 
what our agreement had caused him to lose," and Marie 
confesses that his very marked attentions to a certain 
Marchesa Paleotto, whom they met at Venice during the 
Carnival of 1665, occasioned her "a secret displeasure." 

However, she was too proud to allow the Constable 
to perceive her feelings, and when they returned to 
Rome, the lady and her husband accompanied them, and, 
at the invitation of the prince, installed themselves in a 
vacant suite of apartments at the Casa Colonna. The 
complacent husband only remained in Rome a short 
time, " for the sake of decorum," and then departed for 
Ancona, where he had received some military appoint- 
ment ; but the Marchioness stayed on, and her liaison 
with the Constable was soon the talk of Rome. 

The relations between the latter and Marie were ami- 
able, though somewhat distant. Colonna continued to 
allow his wife full liberty to pass her time as she felt 
disposed, and to keep open house for her friends and 
foreign visitors. The Roman ladies envied her, their 
husbands blamed her, and both declared themselves con- 
vinced that she must have a lover. However, they were 
quite unable to agree as to the identity of this fortunate 
individual, the fact being that Marie, although her 
desire to please was often mistaken for coquetry, was 
almost unrivalled in the difficult art of keeping adorers 
at a respectful distance. 

Such was the state of affairs when Hortense arrived 
in Italy. 

Marie was, of course, overjoyed to see her sister once 
more. u The affection which I had always felt for her," 



280 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

she writes, " made me undertake the journey to Milan 
with incredible pleasure, and I neglected nothing to in- 
duce the Constable to make it. He, on his side, did 
everything he could to dissuade me, but at length, 
having consented with the air of one who does some- 
thing for which he has an extreme repugnance, we set 
out, in the month of July 1668, accompanied by the 
Marchesa Paleotto, and arrived six days later at Milan, 
where the Marquis Spinola de los Balbases, my brother- 
in-law, was the governor par interim" 

To Marie's intense disappointment, Hortense, "whose 
beauty surpassed all imagination, and in whom one dis- 
covered each time one saw her new charms," greeted her 
somewhat coldly, and rallied the Marchesa Paleotto and 
herself, because they were not attired in obedience to the 
dictates of the latest Paris mode, for, coming from 
France, " she judged people only by their exterior and 
esteemed them only in proportion to their being well 
dressed." Moreover, she appeared to have conceived a 
singular dislike to society, and remained in the apart- 
ments which had been allotted her nearly all day, 
" always en deshabille^ but always more charming," seeing 
no one but Marie and her own attendants. The reason 
she gave her sister for thus secluding herself, was that she 
was suffering from an injury sustained by a fall from her 
horse while crossing the Alps. A few weeks later, how- 
ever, the Due de Nevers arrived at Milan, and soon dis- 
covered the real cause of Madame de Mazarin's taste for 
solitude. She had, it transpired, conceived a violent fancy 
for Couberville, the equerry whom the Chevalier de 
Rohan had given her to escort her to Italy, and who 
had gained such ascendency over her that she even 
denied herself to her brother and sister when he hap- 
pened to be with her. Soon this affair had become the 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 281 

talk of the city, and people made ribald verses about it, 
to the intense mortification of the duchess's relatives, 
who felt compelled, in consequence, to cut short their 
visit to Milan and remove to Sienna. 

Here, soon after their arrival, there was a violent dis- 
pute between Hortense and the Due de Nevers on the 
subject of Couberville. This worthy, whom the duchess 
persisted in addressing as " Monsieur le Chevalier," 
although he had no right whatever to that title, was so 
puffed up by his bonne fortune that he gave himself all the 
airs of a gentleman of quality, and treated M. de Nevers 
as if he were that nobleman's equal. The duke bitterly 
reproached his sister with her conduct, and threatened to 
throw the pretended chevalier out of the window, if he 
did not speedily mend his manners. Hortense flew into 
a passion, and angrily denied that there were any grounds 
whatever for the supposition of the duke, who there- 
upon left Sienna and went to Venice. 

Soon after his departure, the Colonnas and Madame 
de Mazarin returned to Rome for the festival of All 
Saints' Day. But Hortense continued to show the same 
liking for solitude as she had evinced at Milan and 
Sienna, and her hosts enjoyed very little of her society. 
Marie now determined to interfere in her turn, and, 
after vainly remonstrating with her sister, sent for 
Couberville and gave him a piece of her mind. " This 
gentleman, far from seeking to excuse himself," she 
writes, "answered me rather impertinently, and, as he 
spoke of my brother in discourteous and far from 
respectful terms, I told him to leave the room immedi- 
ately, and that he would find some one below to teach 
him how to behave himself, and to have for persons of 
my brother's quality the veneration that he ought to 
feel. He obeyed and quitted the room in a great anger." 



282 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Highly indignant at the way in which her lover had 
been treated, Hortense left the Casa Colonna and went 
to live with her aunt, Signora Martinozzi, where she 
remained for some weeks, "shut up like a prisoner," 
amusing herself by playing the guitar. As for Couber- 
ville, he deemed it prudent to leave Italy, and made his 
way to Civita Vecchia, with the intention of embarking 
for France. Here, however, the Constable Colonna 
caused him to be arrested, on some pretext, and im- 
prisoned in a fortress, " to soften his haughty temper." 
After a confinement of some months, he was released, 
through the intercession of Francesco Rospigliosi, the 
Pope's nephew, whom Madame de Mazarin had contrived 
to interest in his favour, and disappears from our history. 

In the meanwhile, the Due de Mazarin, learning that 
his wife was no longer under the protection of the 
Colonnas, petitioned the Pope to have her sent to a con- 
vent. Hortense, however, anticipated him by retiring to 
the Convent of Campo-Marzo, of which another of her 
aunts was the superior, and where she could reckon on 
being permitted to do pretty much as she pleased. She 
had not been there long, however, when she fell into " a 
state of profound melancholy," and confessed to Marie, 
who visited her nearly every day, that an interesting 
event, in which M. de Mazarin had certainly no concern, 
was pending. The situation was most embarrassing, as 
Hortense could not leave the convent without the con- 
sent of her husband or the Pope ; and they were at 
a loss what to do. Eventually, however, Marie solved 
the problem by aiding her sister to escape and bearing 
her off in her coach, before the eyes of the indignant 
nuns, 1 to the Palazzo Mancini, which had been be- 

1 " My poor old aunt [the abbess]," writes Hortense, " took the matter 
so much to heart that she died a few days later, of the grief which my 
escape had occasioned her." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 283 

queathed by Mazarin to the Due de Nevers, though their 
uncle, Cardinal Mancini, was at present residing there. 

The unfortunate termination to her affair with 
M. Couberville does not appear to have had a very 
chastening effect upon the volatile duchess, who, to the 
mortification of her friends, declined to make the least 
attempt to conceal her condition, went frequently into 
society, and " appeared extremely pleased with herself." 
At the fetes which followed the election of Cardinal 
Rospigliosi (Clement X) as Pope, in the spring of 1670, 
she was among the gayest of the gay, and was perpetually 
surrounded by a crowd of adorers. Among those whom 
she most favoured was a certain Jacques de Belbeuf, 
son of a counsellor of the Parliament of Normandy, 
a handsome young man, who had come to Rome to put 
the finishing touches to his education. Hortense pre- 
sented him with her portrait, and we find the proud 
youth writing to his mother as follows : — 

"There is also in the bag I have spoken of a little 
silver box, on one side of which is Madame de Mazarin's 
portrait and on the other my own. As the said lady has 
been pleased to give it me, I wish to place it by the side 
of mine, and feel obliged to keep them for ever. If you 
desire to see the said portrait, and even to show it, I beg 
you to make what use of it you think fit, but it is most 
important not to let it out of your keeping, and do not 
allow people to finger it. Also be careful who has access 
to it, as perhaps persons might wish to copy it, which 
would be most displeasing to me." l 

Madame de Belbeuf was no doubt much gratified by so 
striking a tribute to her son's fascinations. Nowadays, we 
are inclined to think, mothers would be less complacent. 

1 Letter published by Amedee Renee, " Les Nieces de Mazarin." The 
duchess's portrait is still in the possession of the Belbeuf family. 



284 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

The handsome young Norman, however, was not the 
only adorer to be thus honoured by the duchess, for an 
Italian correspondent of the Gazette d' Amsterdam of 
April 1670, informs the readers of that journal that 
" the Constable Colonna had just had to reconcile Don 
Dominico Gusman and Don Augustin Chigi, who had 
quarrelled over a portrait of Madame de Mazarin which 
one of them had received, and were about to settle their 
differences at the point of the sword." Nor did M. de 
Belbeuf long retain the post of honour in the lady's 
affection, being replaced by the Marquis del Grillo, who, 
in his turn, was succeeded by the Comte de Marsan, 
lately arrived in Rome with his brother, the notorious 
Chevalier de Lorraine, whom Madame had persuaded 
Louis XIV to banish from France. The Marquis del 
Grillo, to whom the duchess appears to have been under 
certain financial obligations, did not accept his dismissal 
with at all a good grace, and a second duel was with 
difficulty prevented by the efforts of Madame de 
Mazarin's relatives. Altogether, the Constable and 
Marie must have found the fair Hortense a pretty 
handful. 

In the autumn, the Due de Nevers, who had been 
residing in Rome since the previous winter and was 
now reconciled to his sister, set out for France to marry 
the beautiful Diane de Thianges, niece of Madame de 
Montespan. Hortense, who was perhaps beginning to find 
the welcome which her friends had at first extended to 
her growing a trifle cold, and was besides in need of 
money — she had been, she tells us, " reduced to pawn 
her jewels for the means of subsistence" — decided to 
accompany him and "throw herself at M. de Mazarin's 
feet." But her career at Rome, rumours of which had 
not failed to reach Paris, had been scarcely calculated to 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 285 

promote a reconciliation, and, on reaching Nevers, an 
official of the Grande Chambre presented himself with a 
warrant for her arrest, and a small army, composed of 
M. de Mazarin's guards and a brigade of archers, under 
the command of the Grand Provost of the Bourbonnais, 
wherewith to enforce it. The municipal authorities, 
however, held a consultation, as the result of which they 
decided to take the duchess under their protection, and 
called upon the citizens to defend her. Matters now 
began to assume a very serious aspect, and it seemed as 
if bloodshed must ensue, when a courier arrived from 
the King, commanding M. de Mazarin to sign a truce 
with his wife. The duke obeyed, weeping with rage, 
and Hortense continued her journey to Paris unmolested. 

On her arrival, she had an audience of the King, in 
Madame de Montespan's apartments. His Majesty 
received her very graciously, and offered to order M. de 
Mazarin to pay her a pension of twenty-four thousand 
livres, with liberty to reside in Rome, if she preferred 
exile to returning to her husband. An income of twenty- 
four thousand livres seemed a miserable pittance to a 
woman who had inherited so many millions — (" You 
will spend it at the first inn you stop at," remarked the 
Due de Lauzun to her.) But even that seemed to her 
preferable to a tite-a-tete with M. de Mazarin, and she, 
accordingly, answered the King that " she felt that it 
would be impossible for her to return to M. de Mazarin, 
after all the endeavours he had made to ruin her 
reputation, and that she accepted the pension with a 
humble and heartfelt acknowledgment of his Majesty's 
great favour therein." x 

At the beginning of the following spring, she returned 
to Rome, after an absence of nine months. 

1 " Memoires de la Duchesse de Mazarin." 



CHAPTER XV 

Estrangement between the Constable Colonna and his wife — Growing 
desire of Marie to return to France — She has a dangerous illness — 
And believes herself the victim of an attempt at poisoning — A sus- 
picious letter — Marie confides her fears to the Chevalier de Lorraine — 
They urge Monsieur to obtain Louis XIV's protection for the Con- 
stabless — Recall of the Chevalier de Lorraine to France — He informs 
the King of the danger which threatens Marie — Louis XIV promises 
the Constabless an asylum in France — Marie persuades the Duchesse 
de Mazarin to accompany her — Flight of the two sisters — Their 
perilous journey — Their arrival at Marseilles. 

T70R two or three years after the separation di letto 
between Marie and the Constable Colonna, of which 
we have spoken in the preceding chapter, their relations 
appear to have been amicable enough ; but this state of 
affairs did not last. Whether it was that Colonna had 
his suspicions that what was denied him by his wife was 
accorded to others — Marie has been accused by some 
writers, though apparently on very untrustworthy evi- 
dence, of tender relations with both Cardinal Chigi and 
the Chevalier de Lorraine 1 — or that he was beginning 
to grow weary of the caprices and feverish activity which 
he had endured cheerfully enough so long as he pos- 
sessed her affection, his manner towards her underwent 

1 If we are to place any faith in Marie's apocryphal memoirs, already 
mentioned, the Constable was particularly annoyed by a report that his 
wife had posed pour P ensemble to the chevalier — who was by way of 
being an amateur painter — one day, while bathing in the Tiber. The lady, 
the writer adds, indignantly repudiated the charge, calling her waiting- 
women to witness that she never entered the river, unless attired in a 
robe de gaze which reached to her heels. 

286 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 287 

a change. "We passed the autumn [of 1670] in the 
country and the Carnival at the Operas," writes Marie, 
" but with less satisfaction to me, since, for some time 
past, I had remarked that the Constable had no longer 
for me the same kindness and affection which he had 
hitherto shown. He had no more regard for or con- 
fidence in me ; he rarely addressed me, and, if he did, 
it was in a way which made me prefer his silence to his 
words. The Principe di Sonnino [the Constable's 
brother, formerly known as the Abbate Colonna], who 
by his kindness has often appeased the secret troubles 
of his family, and by his prudence has frequently pre- 
vented them from being made public, will bear witness 
to what I had to endure." 

The Principe di Sonnino did not, however, succeed, 
in this instance, in his task of peacemaker, or even in 
keeping the matter secret, and all Rome was soon dis- 
cussing the differences between the Constable and his 
wife ; while the correspondents of the scandal-loving 
gazettes printed in Holland spread the news all over 
Europe. 1 The Roman ladies, who had never pardoned 
the Constabless for enjoying a liberty which their hus- 
bands denied to them, and had often been wounded 
by the haughtiness with which she treated them, did 
not fail to avenge themselves by circulating the most 
scandalous stories about both parties ; the wretched 
old Archbishop of Amasia was continually whispering 
malicious innuendoes regarding the Constable's conduct 
into his niece's ear, adding that he had warned her from 
the very beginning that the marriage could not fail to 

1 " The bad feeling which exists between them is known to every one. 
It is believed that his Excellency the Marquis d'Astorga, Viceroy of 
Naples, will discuss the matter previous to his departure for Naples, and 
endeavour to bring about a reconciliation" (Gazette de Leydcn, 22 De- 
cember 1670, cited by Lucien Perey). 



288 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

prove an unhappy one ; and the breach grew wider and 
wider. 

During the first years of her married life, the love 
and attentions of the Constable and the brilliant posi- 
tion she had occupied at Rome had aided Marie in her 
endeavours to forget the golden dreams of her youth, 
when even the throne of France had not seemed too 
high a position for her to attain. But from the moment 
she was assured of her husband's infidelity, the ghosts of 
the past refused any longer to be laid, and now that 
she felt that she had lost not only his affection, but his 
esteem, her thoughts turned towards France, and the 
prince who had once loved her so dearly, with a pas- 
sionate longing. She was, of course, aware that her 
place in his Majesty's heart had long since been given 
to others, and that its present occupant was one of 
whom, if report spoke truly, the King was deeply 
enamoured. But when she recollected his intense 
chagrin at her departure, his tender adieux, his promise 
"to give her proofs of his esteem and attachment 
wherever she might be," his anxious solicitude during 
her illness at Loretto, she could not bring herself to 
believe that his feelings towards her could have changed 
so far as not to assure her a cordial welcome whenever 
she might choose to return ; and soon the desire to see 
France again became a fixed idea, to which all others 
were subordinated. 

A few days after the return of the Duchesse de 
Mazarin to Rome, Marie was attacked by "so terrible a 
colic, that had its violence continued a little longer, it 
would have infallibly made an end of her." " My ill- 
ness," she continues, "which was enough to move the 
most insensible heart to compassion, made no impression 
on that of the Constable, at least in appearance, since he 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 289 

listened to my complaints for an entire night with the 
utmost tranquillity." 

At this epoch, the crime of poisoning was still ram- 
pant in Italy, as, a few years later, it became in France, 
though, fortunately, only for a comparatively brief 
period and over a limited area, and every one took 
infinite precautions on the slightest suspicion. Rightly 
or wrongly, Marie became convinced that she had been 
the victim of such an attempt, and that her husband had 
been its instigator ; and this opinion appears to have 
been shared by several of her friends. How far her 
suspicions were justified is difficult to say ; but since 
Colonna had obviously become weary of his wife, and 
was, moreover, a man of a peculiarly vindictive temper, 
who, it was common knowledge, had caused more than 
one person who had been so unfortunate as to offend 
him to be assassinated, 1 they ought certainly not to be 
dismissed as the hallucinations of a disordered brain. 
An incident which occurred during her convalescence 
increased her fears. 

A letter addressed to the Constable was intercepted by 
Morena, a Moorish waiting-maid whom Marie had 
brought with her from France, and carried by her to her 
mistress. Marie, to whose character nothing was more 
foreign than espionage of this kind, ordered it to be 
forwarded to its destination ; but the girl begged her so 
hard to open it that at last, though very reluctantly, she 
consented. The letter advised Colonna that the writer 
was in a position to arrange a very advantageous match 

1 At the time of the Constable's death, in April 1689, the Due 
d'Estrees, French Ambassador at Rome, wrote to Louis XIV : "The 
Pope has shown himself extremely grieved at the death of the Constable 
Colonna. Notwithstanding his violence and his irregularities, and even 
several assassinations, for which the Pope testified so much horror at the 
beginning of his pontificate, he had become a kind of favourite." 



2 9 o FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

for him, in the event of his happening to become a 
widower, but added that, unless he were very speedily 
able to avail himself of the offer, the hand of the heiress 
in question would be bestowed elsewhere. 

Deeming the letter capable of only one interpretation, 
the princess, in great alarm, sent immediately for her 
friend the Chevalier de Lorraine, to whom she confided 
all her fears. The chevalier, grateful to Marie for the 
kindness she had shown his brother and himself during 
their stay in Rome, when almost every door had been 
closed against them, readily promised her all the assist- 
ance in his power ; and it was decided that both of them 
should write to Monsieur, to acquaint him with the 
situation and beg him to secure the King's protection 
for the Constabless. 

Monsieur, who had always been much attached to 
Marie, and had recently presented her, through the 
Chevalier de Lorraine, with " a hunting equipage which 
had cost a thousand pistoles, ornamented with a quantity 
of the most beautiful and the richest ribbons to be found 
in Paris," lost no time in laying the two letters before 
Louis XIV, who, on learning of the danger which was 
believed to threaten his former inamorata, appeared 
much distressed. He refused, however, to take any 
definite steps in the matter until he was in possession of 
further information, which he promised to procure with- 
out delay. Soon afterwards, it was announced that, 
through the intercession of the Abbate Oliva, the 
General of the Jesuits, the Chevalier de Lorraine and 
the Comte de Marsan had been pardoned and recalled 
to Court. 

The two brothers arrived in Paris in March 1672, 
and the chevalier was immediately granted an audience 
of the King, in which he did not fail to depict the fears 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 291 

and sufferings of Marie in the most vivid colours ; 
declared his conviction that her illness of the previous 
year had not been due to natural causes, and impressed 
upon Louis the necessity of protecting her from any 
further attempts upon her life. 

His Majesty, more moved than he cared to appear, 
inquired what measures M. de Lorraine recommended 
to save the Constabless from the perils which surrounded 
her ; to which the chevalier answered that the only 
possible means of assuring her safety was for her to fly 
from her husband and seek an asylum in France. 

The King at once decided to follow his counsel, 
directed him to assure the Constabless of his protection 
and support, and next day sent a letter for him to trans- 
mit to Marie, wherein he promised her a passport and 
an escort to accompany her the moment she set foot 
in France, and charged her to inform him of the port at 
which it was her intention to land. 

Marie's joy and relief on receiving the King's letter 
were intense. Since the departure of the Chevalier de 
Lorraine and his brother from Rome, the relations be- 
tween the Constable and herself had become more strained 
than ever, and the former now made so little effort to 
conceal the aversion and contempt he had begun to feel 
for his wife, even in the presence of her relatives, that 
the Due de Nevers, who was, as usual, spending the 
winter in Rome, warned his sister to be very cir- 
cumspect in her conduct, since otherwise he feared 
that some fine day she might find herself shut up in 
Palliano, a castle belonging to the Constable on the 
borders of the Ecclesiastical States and the kingdom 
of Naples. 

The moment she was assured of the protection of 
Louis XIV, Marie hastened to make her preparations 



292 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

for flight. 1 She said nothing, however, of her project 
to the Due de Nevers, fearing that he might deem it his 
duty to inform his brother-in-law, but took Hortense 
into her confidence and begged her to accompany her. 
The duchess tells us that she employed every conceiv- 
able argument to dissuade her sister, but to no purpose, 
" for the same stars, or their influences, which drew her 
into Italy, drew her into France." Finally, she yielded, 
because, as she explains, " she had no mind to remain at 
Rome without her, and believed that she might be able 
to lessen the dangers she would have to incur by sharing 
them with her." 2 

Under cover to the Chevalier de Lorraine, Marie 
now wrote to Louis XIV, expressing her gratitude for 
his assurance of protection, and begging him to send to 
the intendant of the galleys at Marseilles the pass- 
ports and the necessary papers for her and her sister, the 
latter being still in dread of the pursuit of her husband. 
She also requested permission to take up her residence 
in Paris, at the Hotel de Nevers, with her brother, who, 
she had no doubt, would approve of her flight, although 
he might have refused to connive at it. 

This done, she despatched Pelletier, an intelligent and 
devoted valet de chambre in the service of the Duchesse 

1 In her "Memoires," Marie gives the following reasons for her flight. 
It will be observed that she only hints at the chief cause of her resolution, 
namely, the fear that her life was in danger : " The violent conduct of the 
Constable, joined to the aversion I entertained for Italian customs, and for 
the manner of life at Rome, where dissimulation and hatred between 
families are more in vogue than at other Courts, hastened my putting 
into execution the design I had formed to return to France, the place of 
my education, the residence of the majority of my relatives, and the 
centre of my genius, since I had an inclination for the novelties to be 
found there, the free and joyous humour of the people, and the warlike air 
and brave deportment of the men, rather than for life in a quiet spot and 
under a peaceable Government." 

2 " Memoires de la Duchesse de Mazarin." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 293 

de Mazarin, to Naples, where he arranged with the master 
of a felucca which lay there to convey them to France. 
It was agreed that the felucca should proceed to Civita 
Vecchia, and that the fugitives should embark there. 

On learning of the result of Pelletier's mission, the 
sisters resolved to make their escape without loss of 
time. Marie took with her the string of pearls, for- 
merly the property of Queen Henrietta Maria, which 
Louis XIV had given her just before her departure 
for La Rochelle, a little valise containing some clothes, 
and about 700 pistoles. The remainder of her jewellery, 
the greater part of which were presents from the Con- 
stable and his relatives, she left behind, with a letter 
requesting that it should be equally divided between her 
three sons. Then, on 29 May 1672, taking advantage 
of the absence of the Constable, who had gone to visit a 
stud-farm belonging to him at some little distance from 
Rome, and was not expected to return until the follow- 
ing day, she left the Casa Colonna, accompanied by her 
Moorish waiting-maid Morena, and proceeded to the 
Palazzo Mancini. Here she found a coach in readiness, 
at the door of which was Hortense, with whom were a 
waiting-woman 'named Nanon, Pelletier, and a footman. 

But let us allow Marie to give her own account of 
their adventure : — 

" In a few moments we entered my sister's coach. 
On leaving the house we cried to the coachman, ' To 
Frascati,' in order to deceive a throng of people who 
were at the gate of the Palazzo Mazarini. But when 
we had turned the corner of the street, Pelletier, my 
sister's valet de chambre, who had arranged for the felucca 
of Naples to be at Civita Vecchia, ordered the coachman 
to drive straight to the latter place. The coachman 
obeyed, and we arrived on the outskirts of Civita 



294 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Vecchia as night closed in. Pelletier had arranged with 
the sailors to take us on board four miles from the port. 
We sent him to announce our coming, after the foot- 
man, whom we had despatched for that purpose and 
awaited with extreme impatience, had failed to return. 

" The delay occasioned us a little uneasiness. How- 
ever, in spite of all our anxiety to conceal ourselves and 
our fears of being overtaken, Madame de Mazarin and 
I quitted the coach, penetrated into a very thick wood 
near the sea, and composed ourselves to sleep, which we 
did so soundly for two hours that Nanon, my sister's 
maid, and Morena, who was with me, and mounted 
guard over us, were astonished to the last degree to see 
us sleeping so tranquilly. 

" On awakening, towards morning, we perceived the 
valet de chambre, who told us that he had failed to find 
the vessel, and that the footman, after getting intoxicated, 
had remained in an inn to sleep off the effects of the 
wine he had imbibed, so that we judged it expedient to 
re-enter the coach and advance a little further, along a 
by-path, for fear of being overtaken, if we were pursued 
along the high road. But our horses were so tired that 
they were scarcely able to stand, which caused my sister 
to say that it would be better to send them back with the 
coach to the inn opposite Civita Vecchia, and give the 
coachman orders to say, if any one came in search of us, 
that he had seen us embark, in order that they might not 
pursue us further." 

After having proceeded for a considerable distance 
along a dusty road and under a scorching sun, they re- 
tired into the depths of a wood and sent Pelletier once 
more in search of the felucca, telling him that, in the 
event of his still being unable to find that elusive 
vessel, he must charter another. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 295 

"The heat of the sun," continues Marie, "which had 
been beating on our heads for the space ot five hours 
and which was then at its height, a fast of four-and- 
twenty hours, and the disappointment of hearing no news 
of the vessel, threw us into a despair which made me 
say to my sister that I wished to return, and that it 
would be preferable to die at Rome, in whatever manner 
I must, than to die of hunger where we were. But my 
sister, who is the most patient and the most cheerful 
woman in the world, encouraged me by her arguments, 
finally adding that, if in the course of the next half-hour 
we received no favourable news, we could still return. 
I resolved then to wait for that time, and scarcely had a 
quarter passed when we heard the sound of a horse 
approaching at full gallop in our direction. Thereupon 
the fear of being overtaken, joined to the other agitations 
of my mind, threw me into the greatest consternation 
conceivable. But my sister, who had at that moment 
two pistols in her hand, perceiving that it was the little 
La Roche (the name of the postilion, who had gone to 
look for the vessel, without saying anything to us about 
it), reassured me altogether, and my sorrow was on the 
instant converted into joy by the news that he gave us, 
which was that, so far as he could gather, our vessel was 
awaiting us four miles from the place in which we were. 
He forthwith took charge of our valises, which were 
neither heavy nor numerous. Nevertheless, we walked 
in front, on foot, in the full heat of the sun and through 
a flat country, in which we saw a number of vipers 
gliding about. 

"The indefatigable Madame de Mazarin constituted 
herself our advance guard, and continued to walk so 
fast that, to keep up with her, I was forced to rest from 
time to time. Hunger, thirst, weariness, and the heat had 



296 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

deprived me of strength to such a degree that I was 
compelled to ask a man who was engaged in ploughing 
to carry me only some hundred paces towards the sea, 
telling him that I had lost my people while out hunting 
(my sister and I having changed our clothes in the 
coach). At first, he refused, but when I added some 
pistoles to my request, he finally allowed himself to be 
persuaded. He then lifted me up in his arms, and in 
this manner I joined my sister. Almost immediately 
afterwards, Pelletier arrived and told us that he had 
chartered another vessel for the sum of one thousand 
crowns, but that, to tell the truth, he did not like the 
appearance of the master or the sailors, who looked to 
him thorough rascals. We answered that Fortune had 
decided otherwise, having permitted the little La Roche 
to find the first, and that he had gone to meet her. 

" Pelletier was no less delighted than ourselves at this 
happy adventure, for he had a very good opinion of the 
master of the latter vessel. At length, partly on foot, 
partly with the assistance of the labourer, I reached the 
seashore, where, soon afterwards, our maids came to 
rejoin us ; but, finding neither the first nor the second 
vessel, and seeing our hopes so cruelly frustrated, I 
abandoned myself to despair. My sister was not less 
disconsolate than myself at this counter-stroke. How- 
ever, she concealed her anxiety for fear of augmenting 
mine. The only recourse we had in this predicament 
was, after throwing ourselves on a little straw that we 
found in a cabin, to send Pelletier a second time to look 
for the vessel, the while, for my part, I begged the 
labourer to go and procure me a little water. 

"At the end of a quarter of an hour, Pelletier re- 
turned, and, with a troubled air and in a very frightened 
tone, told us that we were pursued, and that we were 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 297 

lost. My weakness had rendered me so indifferent that I 
heard this intelligence almost without emotion. But 
my sister, pressing him to tell her if it were true, and 
eventually perceiving, by the manner in which he assured 
her of it, that it was nothing, told him angrily to speak 
seriously ; and when he replied that it was not the case, 
and that he had intended to frighten us by way of 
pleasantry, rebuked him sharply and told him that he 
had chosen his time for jesting very ill. 

" We then made our way to the place where the 
vessel awaited us, and where, unfortunately, we found 
also the second, the master and the sailors of which 
urged us strongly to enter it. But Pelletier, having 
given me a more favourable account of the master of 
the first, I promptly entered it, without paying any 
attention to the importunities of the people in the 
other. My sister and our maids did the same, but had 
scarcely done so when the other crew began to threaten 
us and to endeavour to prevent our putting out to sea, 
so that 1 was obliged to give them some money to secure 
their good-will and free us from the difficulty. 

" I was scarcely out at sea than I began to feel the 
effects of it, and yet was more sensible of the new pro- 
position that our master made us of more money for 
our passage than the sum he had agreed to accept from 
our valet de chambre. He grounded his demand on the 
danger to which he had exposed himself in serving us. 
Pelletier, who did not want for courage, was enraged 
to find himself deceived in the good opinion of our 
master, who, contrary to his promise, demanded more 
than was his due, and, in great wrath, would have made 
him stand to his bargain. But the master had force on 
his side, and to his arguments, good or bad, added the 
threat to throw us overboard or set us ashore on some 



298 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

deserted island, so that I ordered Pelletier to desist, and, 
by adding one hundred pistoles to the sum previously 
agreed upon, silenced the master, assuring him of further 
recompense on his landing us in France, which he 
promised to do." 1 

In the meanwhile, in Rome, the greatest excitement 
prevailed at both the Casa Colonna and the Palazzo 
Mancini. When night fell, and the two ladies did not 
return, their respective households became very uneasy. 
When mornmg came, and there were still no signs of 
the absent ones, their anxiety gave way to consternation, 
and a servant on horseback was despatched to inform 
the Constable. Colonna at once returned to Rome, and 
sent off mounted messengers in all directions to gather 
news of the fugitives, but without any result. Towards 
evening, however, Madame de Mazarin's coachman 
arrived, with the news that the two ladies had embarked 
on a ship near Civita Vecchia, upon which the enraged 
Constable despatched a courier to the Marquis d'Astorga, 
Governor of Naples, begging him to send galleys in 
pursuit of his wife in the direction of Marseilles, a 
request with which that official hastened to comply. 

The Constable did not doubt that the fugitives would 
make for France, and he had a shrewd suspicion that 
Louis XIV was a consenting party to his wife's escape, 
if he had not actually instigated it. He accordingly 
called upon the French Ambassador to the Vatican, 
Cardinal d'Estrees, who professed himself greatly 
shocked at the conduct of the Constabless, and promised 
to write to the Bishop of Marseilles and to Colbert, 
and also, at Colonna's special request, to the Queen, to 
beg her Majesty to do everything possible to prevent 

1 " La Verite dans son jour." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 299 

the lady having an interview with the King. 1 Louis XIV, 
it should be mentioned, was then with the army in 
Holland ; but the Constable was well aware that his 
wife, in her present temper, would be quite capable of 
pursuing him from one end of Europe to the other. 

Let us, however, leave the Constable, fuming with 
indignation, and return to the adventurous sisters, 
voyaging in their little felucca, at the mercy of a crew 
of rascally Neapolitans, who were probably only de- 
terred from throwing them overboard and seizing on all 
they possessed by the thought of the reward which had 
been promised them on the safe arrival of their passen- 
gers on French soil, and through seas swarming with 
Turkish corsairs. 

" We had the wind very favourable for the first six 
hours," continues Marie, " after which there fell a great 
calm, and we made scarcely any progress. At sunrise 
we sighted a brigantine, and, the master fearing that it 
was a Turkish vessel, we headed for some rocks on the 
coast of Tuscany, where he pointed out to us a place 
where we might land and conceal ourselves, in case he 
were attacked. Then, under cover of the same rocks, 
he proceeded to reconnoitre the vessel, and, having finally 
inquired and learned that she was a Genoese, we con- 
tinued our voyage in the same calm weather so far as 
Monaco, where my sister was much incommoded by the 
sea, which became so rough under the influence of a 

1 Cardinal d'Estrees also wrote to Pomponne, then Minister for 
Foreign Affairs. His letter is interesting, since it shows that in well- 
informed circles Marie's flight was attributed to its true cause : " After 
the thousand conjectures that have been made about this escape, so far as 
regards the Constabless, it is thought that the most probable is that she 
was in dread of being poisoned. The Constable and she voluntarily 
ceased to live together as husband and wife three years since." 



300 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

very high wind, that we should have been wrecked, had 
not our master been so skilful. 

" As we were unable to disembark for want of a cer- 
tificate of health, having come from Civita Vecchia, in 
the environs of which the plague then was, we landed at 
Monaco, where we secured false ones, which we made 
use of at Ciotat, our master being unwilling to land at 
Marseilles, owing to some differences which he had with 
the people of that port. This proved a rather fortunate 
circumstance for us, since it enabled us to escape the 
feluccas and galleys which the Constable had sent in 
pursuit of us, and which, failing to find us at sea, by 
reason of the unusual course which our master, a very 
shrewd man, had kept, made for Marseilles and the 
other ports, where we should undoubtedly have been 
captured, had we possessed certificates of health to en- 
able us to land there. 

" At length, after a voyage of nine days, we arrived 
safely at Ciotat, where, having rested about four hours, 
we mounted some horses which we had hired, and, 
travelling all night, reached Marseilles at a somewhat 
early hour, where I first inquired for M. Arnoux, 
intendant of the galleys, in the hope that he would have 
the passport for me which I had requested of the King, 
in the letter I had written his Majesty ere leaving 
Rome." 

The intendant handed the Constabless a packet con- 
taining the passport and a letter from Louis XIV for 
herself, and another from Pomponne, the Minister for 
Foreign Affairs, to the Comte de Grignan, Madame 
de Sevigne's son-in-law, the King's lieutenant in Pro- 
vence, recommending him to receive the lady at Aix and 
give her all the assistance she might require. Armed 
with these papers, Marie returned to the inn where she 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 301 

and her sister had put up and went to bed, exhausted 
with fatigue, to be speedily awakened, however, to hear 
that a certain Meneghini, or Manechini, a swashbuck- 
ling gentleman in the Constable's service, who had ap- 
parently arrived by one of the galleys which had been 
sent in pursuit of them, desired to speak with her. In 
great alarm, for she believed that Meneghini's object 
was to carry her off or perhaps assassinate her, the 
princess despatched a messenger to inform the intendant, 
who sent some of his guards to protect her, and begged 
her to remove to his own house for greater security. 
However, Meneghini had come with pacific intentions, 
his orders being to beg her to return to Rome, or at 
least to postpone the continuance of her journey " until 
the arrival of a suite more in accordance with her rank," 
both of which propositions the lady declined. 

The sisters spent the night at the intendant's house, 
" where the kind reception and the good cheer that was 
provided for us, and the comfortable beds we found 
there, repaired in some degree the evils we had suffered 
on the vessel." On the morrow, the Comte de Grignan, 
to whom they had forwarded the letter of the Minister 
for Foreign Affairs, sent an escort of his guards to con- 
duct them to Aix, where they were lodged in the house 
of a M. de Mories, a gentleman in the service of the 
Due de Nevers, who treated them " in the most mag- 
nificent and most obliging manner conceivable." 



CHAPTER XVI 

:nsation aroused in Paris by Marie's adventure — The Constable Colonna 
writes to Louis XIV — Marie sends the valet de ckambre Pelletier 
with a letter to the King — The Constable despatches an agent to 
Paris — Hortense goes to Turin and the Constabless to Grenoble — The 
Queen forbids Marie to continue her journey — Interview between the 
Due de Nevers and his sister — Brief of Clement X to Louis XIV on 
behalf of the Constable — Letter of Maria Theresa to the King — Louis 
XIV leaves the army and returns to France — Second brief of the 
Pope — Embarrassing position of the King — He advises the Con- 
stabless to enter a convent — She ignores the orders of the Queen and 
sets out for Paris — The King sends La Gilbertiere to order her to 
return to Grenoble — Her interview with the Due de Crequi — Louis 
XIV accedes to her request to enter the Abbey of Lys and sends her 
a thousand pistoles — Her sojourn at Lys — Reply of the King to the 
Pope's brief — He becomes more favourably disposed towards the 
Constabless — Imprudent letter of Marie to Colbert — Louis XIV sends 
her to the Abbey of Avenay — She is permitted to reside with her 
brother at Nevers — She resolves to go to Turin. 

/ "T"*HE news of the arrival of our two heroines in 
Provence created a great sensation in Paris, and 
Madame de Sevigne, to whom Madame de Grignan did 
not fail to send early intelligence of the matter, wrote 
to her daughter : — 

"In the midst of our chagrins, the description that you 
have sent me of Madame de Colonna and her sister is a 
delightful incident ; it is an admirable picture. The 
Comtesse de Soissons and Duchesse de Bouillon are 
furious against these madcaps, and say that they ought 
to be shut up ; they declare themselves strongly opposed 
to this strange escapade. It is not thought that the 

302 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 303 

King will care to offend the Constable, who is assuredly 
the most powerful nobleman in Rome. In the meanwhile, 
we shall see them arrive like Mile, de 1'Etoile : J the 
comparison is excellent." 2 

In the meantime, the Constable Colonna was moving 
heaven and earth to recover his fugitive wife. He 
appealed to the Pope ; he enlisted the good office of the 
Pope's nephew, Cardinal Altieri, who governed the aged 
Clement X and was bitterly antagonistic to Louis XIV $ 
he sent for the Due de Nevers, who was at Venice, and 
extracted from him a promise to use all his influence 
with his sister to induce her to return ; and he wrote to 
the King a letter in which he characterized the charges 
which his wife appeared to have brought against him as 
" imaginary pretexts to excuse her culpable departure" ; 
dwelt upon the dishonour which her conduct had brought 
upon him and his House; implored his Majesty "to 
make use of his lofty wisdom and to cut the thread of 
scandal greater still than those of which this regrettable 
imprudence had already been the cause," and ended by 
expressing his opinion that, " thanks to his authority 
and his great wisdom, his Majesty would not fail to 
find means to bring back Madame to a sense of her 
duties, and, at the same time, deliver him [the Constable] 
from a grief as painful as it was undeserved, and which 
occasioned him such cruel agitation of mind." 3 

Nor did he neglect other means, since he despatched 
one Saint-Simon, a very resourceful individual in the 
service of his friend Cardinal Altieri, to France, with 
orders to endeavour to induce the Constabless to return 

1 One of the characters in the " Roman comique " of Scarron. 

2 Letter of 29 June 1672. 

3 Letter of 21 June 1672, Archives des Affaires Etrang£res, pub- 
lished by Lucien Perey, " Marie Mancini Colonna." 



30 4 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

to Rome ; and, should he fail in this, which seemed almost 
certain, to proceed to Paris and do everything possible 
to persuade the King that a guilty passion for the 
Chevalier de Lorraine was the true motive of the lady's 
appearance in France. 

On her side, Marie, foreseeing the influences which 
would be brought to bear upon the King, was not idle, 
and lost no time in sending the faithful Pelletier to 
Holland, where, as we have said, Louis XIV then was, 
with a letter for his Majesty, begging him to grant her 
permission to come to Paris. Pelletier, however, was 
waylaid by a troop of Italian bandits, who attacked him 
and left him half-dead by the roadside ; nor was it until 
three weeks later that the Constabless learned of the fate 
of her envoy, and, in the meantime, suffered torments of 
anxiety at the non-arrival of the expected reply. There 
is some reason to believe that the attack upon Pelletier 
had been instigated by Saint-Simon, in order to prevent 
the Constabless communicating with the King. About 
the same time, news arrived that Saint-Simon had reached 
Paris and had appealed to the Queen and the Ministers, 
giving out that he was authorised to speak on behalf of 
the Vatican, in virtue of his connection with Cardinal 
Altieri. Thereupon Marie quitted Aix, with the inten- 
tion of proceeding to Paris, accompanied by her sister 
and escorted by the Chevalier de Mirabeau, over whom 
Hortense appears to have cast her spells, and some of 
M. de Grignan's guards ; but, on reaching Pont-Saint- 
Esprit, they learned that the Due de Mazarin's chief 
myrmidon, Polastron, and a party of soldiers were 
approaching to arrest the duchess, against whom the 
decree of the Grande Chambre, authorising her husband 
to seize her person wherever he might find her, was still 
in force. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 305 

This alarming intelligence obliged them to quit the 
high road and seek refuge in a neighbouring chateau, and 
the same night Hortense took the road for Savoy, whose 
ruler, Charles Emmanuel II, it will be remembered, had 
once been a suitor for her hand, and had treated her, she 
tells us, with so much courtesy when she passed through 
Turin on her way to Italy the previous year, that she had 
resolved to take up her residence in his territories, if 
ever she quitted Rome. 1 

Madame de Mazarin's reception at Turin exceeded 
her fondest anticipations. The Duke, delighted to see 
her, not only promised her his protection, but even went 
so far as to offer her the ducal chateau of Chambery as 
a residence, and to give orders for it to be immediately 
prepared for her reception. However, she only remained, 
for the present, a very short time in Savoy, as on 
learning that Marie was awaiting her at Grenoble, she 
at once set out for that town. During her journey 
through Charles Emmanuel's territories, every imagin- 
able honour was paid her, and the various officials 
received orders to report every incident of her progress 
to their sovereign. 

On her arrival at Grenoble, Marie had been very 
courteously received by the Due de Lesdiguieres, the 
Governor of Dauphine, who begged her to take up her 
quarters at his hotel, or, if she preferred, at the Arsenal, 
which latter offer she accepted. But alas ! a rather un- 
pleasant surprise was in store for her, since, three days 
later, she received a letter from Maria Theresa — whom 
Louis XIV, during his absence in Holland, had appointed 
Regent of the kingdom — commanding her, "in the most 
courteous manner conceivable," not to proceed beyond 
the place where her Majesty's letter might happen to 

1 " Memoires de la Duchesse de Mazarin." 



3 o6 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

find her, and adding " that she had no doubt that such 
was the intention of the King." 

The Constabless had, of course, no alternative but to 
obey, and informed the royal messenger that she had no 
intention of going further, and would render implicit 
obedience to the Queen's commands. Although much 
annoyed at being thus prevented from continuing her 
journey to Paris, she consoled herself by the reflection 
that some opposition from the Queen was, after all, only 
to be expected, and that, in all probability, the King's 
" intention " in regard to her was very different from 
that which his jealous consort chose to imagine. But, 
as we shall presently see, the opposition of Maria Theresa 
did not stop here. 

Madame de Mazarin reached Grenoble a few days 
later, and, almost immediately afterwards, the Due de 
Nevers arrived from Italy. Faithful to the promise he 
had given the Constable at Rome, he urged Marie very 
strongly to return to her husband, pointing out the 
serious obstacles which stood in the way of her being 
permitted to reside in France, particularly the enmity of 
the Queen and Madame de Montespan, whom he made 
no doubt were both equally determined to keep her and 
the King apart. He expressed his conviction that 
circumstances would be too strong for her, and that the 
egotistical monarch would not hesitate to sacrifice her to 
the jealousy of his wife and mistress ; while, even if he 
declined to yield to their importunities, it was hardly 
possible that he could turn a deaf ear to the urgent 
representations which the Vatican would be certain to 
make on behalf of the Constable Colonna. Marie 
replied that she had not taken a resolution of such 
importance to stop half-way, but that she had no wish to 
compromise any member of her family. To which her 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 307 

brother, who valued his own peace and comfort above 
all things, rejoined that he entirely declined to be made 
a party to her escapade ; and they separated on far from 
cordial terms. 

The Due de Nevers did not exaggerate the hostile 
influences which would be brought to bear upon Louis 
XIV. The Nuncio at the French Court kept Cardinal 
Altieri fully informed of all that was happening in France, 
and, on learning from him that Pelletier, now recovered 
from his injuries, had passed through Paris, on his way 
to the King in Holland, the Cardinal despatched to his 
Majesty a brief which he had extracted from the Pope, 
wherein his Holiness informed the Most Christian King 
that he took very much to heart the affair which concerned 
his beloved son, the noble Constable Colonna, and that it 
was " his sincere desire that his Majesty would lend a 
benevolent ear to the Constable's representations and 
assure him of his protection." Altieri himself wrote to 
the King in more precise terms. " I take advantage of 
the brief of his Holiness," he writes, " to represent also 
to your Majesty my grief at an incident so prejudicial to 
the family of the Constable, and to beg your Majesty 
to facilitate the reunion of the fugitive and her husband, 
by his royal authority and by every means which may 
appear opportune to his lofty wisdom." 

About the same time that these epistles reached him, 
Louis XIV received a letter from the Queen which 
would appear to have been inspired by the Constable's 
crafty emissary Saint-Simon, wherein she assured him 
that the fears which had prompted Marie to fly from 
Rome were purely imaginary, and that her true motive 
in wishing to establish herself in France was to enjoy 
the society of the Chevalier de Lorraine, about whose 
conduct in the affair she expressed herself very strongly. 



308 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

She insisted, also, on the difficulties and embarrassments, 
both political and domestic, which the open protection 
which his Majesty seemed resolved to accord the lady 
must inevitably entail, and made no attempt to conceal 
the anxiety and pain which the presence of the Constabless 
in Paris would occasion her. 

It is highly probable that Madame de Montespan, 
who, on 20 June of that year, had presented her 
royal lover with a third pledge of her affection in the 
shape of a son (afterwards the Comte de Vexin), also 
wrote to his Majesty to much the same effect, and we 
can well believe that the arguments of his mistress 
would have at least as much influence with Louis as 
those of the Queen. 

However, the King was disinclined to take any further 
steps in so delicate a matter until his return from Hol- 
land, and it would seem that Maria Theresa was acting 
entirely on her own responsibility when she sent orders 
forbidding Marie to continue her journey to Paris. 

Finding that his demands for the return of his wife 
and her expulsion from France did not seem to be pro- 
ductive of any result, the Constable Colonna's suspicions 
that there was a secret understanding between Marie and 
Louis XIV gave way to conviction, upon which the tone 
he had hitherto adopted underwent a complete change, 
and what he had demanded as a right he now sought as 
a favour, promising that, if the Court of France would 
but employ its good offices to induce the princess to 
return to Italy, the past should be forgotten, and she 
should be treated with every possible consideration. At 
the same time, it is evident, from the correspondence of 
Cardinal Altieri with the Nuncio in Paris, that the 
Constable's intentions differed very widely from these 
professions, and that he was fully resolved, when once 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 309 

he had got his truant wife into his hands, that a con- 
vent, either in Rome or in some other part of Italy, and 
not the Casa Colonna, should be her residence. 

Towards the end of July, Louis XIV quitted the army 
and returned to Saint-Germain, where the Court then was. 
The Nuncio at once pressed for an answer to the repre- 
sentations which the Vatican had made on behalf of its 
"beloved son"; but Le Tellier, to whom he applied, 
answered that the war and other important matters had 
so occupied his Majesty's mind that he as yet had had 
no leisure to attend to the affair in question. The 
Nuncio, very dissatisfied with this evasive reply, there- 
upon resolved to have recourse to a second papal brief, 
which Altieri had sent him, with instructions not to 
make use of it, unless other arguments failed ; and 
accordingly handed it to Le Tellier to transmit to the 
King. It was as follows : — 

Pope Clement X to Louis XIV. 

" Very dear son in Christ, greeting, etc. 

" It is with great sorrow that we have learned of the 
sudden departure of our dear daughter in Jesus Christ, 
the noble Constabless Colonna, since we are animated by 
the kindliest sentiments towards that illustrious family, 
and all matters which concern it affect us keenly. Now, 
we have recently learned that the said beloved daughter 
in Jesus Christ has set out for France, which, in truth, 
occasions us a lively joy, since your Majesty will act in 
conformity with the compassion which is innate in him, 
in employing his royal authority to send her back as 
speedily as possible to her husband. The venerable 
brother Francesco (N), 1 Archbishop of Florence, will 
explain our intentions more fully to your Majesty, on 

1 The Nuncio, Francesco Nerli. 



3 io FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

whom we confer, in the meanwhile, our Apostolic bene- 
diction. 

"Given at Rome, the XII July MDCLXXII, the 
third year of our Pontificate." 1 

Beset, on one side, by the representations of the 
Constable and the Holy See, and, on the other, by the 
importunities of the Queen and Madame de Montespan 
and the solicitations of Colbert and Louvois, who, aware 
of Marie's taste for politics, were terrified at the prospect 
of her resuming her influence over the King's mind, 
Louis XIV found himself in a most embarrassing posi- 
tion. He had promised his old love his protection, and 
his honour, no less than the remains of the affection he 
had once entertained for her, forbade him to go back on 
his word. But, even if the fears for her personal safety 
which had prompted her to take refuge in France were 
well founded, and not a mere figment of an excited 
imagination or a pretext for leaving a husband whom 
she disliked, about which he had begun to have some 
doubts, the security she sought had been attained so soon 
as she had set foot in his dominions, and by no means 
necessitated her residing in Paris. To permit her to do 
this, in the face of the representations of the Constable, 
the Nuncio, Cardinal Altieri, and even the Pope, would, 
he felt, be a most impolitic step, and one capable of a 
very sinister interpretation. Moreover, he valued his 
tranquillity too highly to hazard it lightly, and signs 
were not wanting that the advent of the Constabless in 
Paris would be the signal for trouble in more than one 
quarter of the Court. He, therefore, resolved to adopt 
a middle course : he would refuse to surrender the lady 
to her husband, though he would use every possible 
1 Published by Lucien Perey, " Marie Mancini Colonna." 




After the painting by JMignard 

MARIE MANCINI COLONNA, PRINCIPESSA DI PALLIANO 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 311 

persuasion to induce her to return to him ; but, at the 
same time, he would set his face sternly against her 
residing in Paris or approaching the Court. 

Meanwhile the Constabless, at Grenoble, was im- 
patiently awaiting the return of the faithful Pelletier 
with the King's answer. At last, the letter arrived, and 
we can imagine the eagerness with which she took it and 
broke the seal. But a bitter disappointment was in store 
for her, since, instead of according her the permission to 
come to Paris which she so ardently desired, the King 
advised her to retire to a convent, " in order to close 
the mouths of the slanderers who were placing sinister 
interpretations on her retirement from Rome." 

The Constabless, deeply chagrined at the contents of 
the letter, so very different from the kind and sym- 
pathetic one she had received at Marseilles, felt con- 
vinced that, by some means, his Majesty's mind had 
been prejudiced against her. She had been expressly 
forbidden to proceed beyond Grenoble, and was, more- 
over, short of money ; but she was not the woman 
to recoil before difficulties, and, believing that if she 
could only obtain an audience of the King, all might yet 
be well, immediately resolved to ignore the orders of 
Maria Theresa and set out for Paris. " I was so little 
satisfied with this letter," she writes, " that I determined 
to go straight to Paris and throw myself at his 
Majesty's feet, and communicated my intention to my 
sister. We started in a litter, without saying a word 
about our journey to any one, from fear that the 
governor would stop us, and travelled together to 
Lyons, where we separated, she to return to Chambery, 
while I continued my journey to Paris, accompanied by 
a courier whom I had known at Rome, named Marguien, 
a trustworthy and intelligent man, whom I engaged to 



312 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

come with me, and who charged himself with all the 
expenses of the journey. I travelled post, in a caleche^ 
and Morena and he followed on horseback. 

On arriving at Nevers, the Constabless learned, to her 
dismay, that a gentleman had forbidden the post, in the 
King's name, to furnish any one with horses without his 
permission, and that similar orders had been given to all 
the postmasters along the road to Paris. She was also 
informed that the gentleman in question, a certain M. de 
la Gilbertiere, was awaiting her at the bridge over the 
Loire, a little further on, and entertained no doubt that 
he was the bearer of a message from the King, for- 
bidding her to come to Paris. However, by dint of 
bribery and coaxing, she succeeded in obtaining post- 
horses, and, by making a detour through some by-streets, 
escaped the King's messenger and hastened on towards 
the capital. She travelled all night, and at such speed that 
her carriage was twice overturned ; but at Montargis her 
maid Morena was taken ill, and this necessitated a delay, 
which enabled La Gilbertiere, who had been following in 
hot pursuit, to come up with them at Fontainebleau. 

La Gilbertiere lost no time in seeking an interview 
with the Constabless and communicating to her his 
instructions. " He desired to suggest to me," writes 
Marie, " that my wisest course would be to return to the 
Constable, as in France matters were not taking a very 
favourable turn for me, the King having been given to 
understand that I flattered myself that I possessed great 
influence over his mind. To this he added that the 
King was much annoyed at having accorded me his pro- 
tection under frivolous pretexts, and for reasons which 
had no other foundation than my caprice ; and he 
concluded by informing me that, in the event of my 
being resolved not to return to my home, I should 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 313 

go back to Grenoble and enter the Abbey of Montfleuri. 
These were the exact terms of his embassy. 

" I replied that I had not quitted my home to return 
there so soon ; that frivolous pretexts had not caused me 
to take this resolution, but good and solid reasons, 
which, however, I could and would explain only to the 
King, and that I hoped for justice from him ; that, pro- 
vided I could speak to him once, which was all I 
demanded, he would be easily disabused of all the bad 
impressions that had been given him of me ; that I was 
very far from flattering myself that I possessed the sup- 
posed empire over him of which he had just spoken to me ; 
that I possessed neither sufficient merit nor sufficient 
capacity to take any part whatever in the management of 
his affairs ; that all I asked for was to withdraw to Paris, 
and that I limited my ambition to the extent of a cloister, 
where I begged his Majesty to suffer me to dwell 
among my relatives, as the Grand Duchess of Tuscany 
and the Princesse de Chalais were at present living, and 
as had a thousand other ladies, either widows or 
separated from their husbands. As for returning to 
Grenoble, I found myself too fatigued to undertake 
another journey ; and, besides, I awaited his Majesty's 
answer in regard to the steps I should take." 

So saying, she turned her back upon the King's 
emissary, and taking up a guitar which stood in a corner 
of the room, began to play upon it, as a signal that the 
interview was at an end. Louis XIV had refused even 
to grant an audience to the woman who, twelve years 
before, had reigned at his Court almost like a queen. 
Her disappointment and mortification were intense, but 
she derived some little comfort from the reflection that 
La Gilbertiere's mission must be the work of Maria 
Theresa rather than of the King. 



3 H FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Some days later, the Constabless received a visit from 
the Due de Crequi, First Gentleman of the Chamber to 
Louis XIV, whom his Majesty had sent to reply to the 
propositions she had made to La Gilbertiere. The duke 
found her lodged in a wretched auberge? stretched on a 
pallet, and was unable to prevent himself from expressing 
his compassion at a spectacle which contrasted so strangely 
with the pomp and grandeur of the Casa Colonna where 
he had last seen her. The princess, however, cut short 
his " lamentations," by begging him to come at once to 
the point, upon which he told her, in the most courteous 
terms at his command, that the King did not wish her 
to enter Paris or to speak to him, since he had given his 
word to the Nuncio and the Constable, for reasons of 
which she could not be ignorant, that he would not do 
so, and that her only alternative, if she did not prefer to 
return to Rome, which was the wisest and the most 
honourable course to take, was to go back to Grenoble. 

The lady rejoined that she was desolated by the King's 
refusal to allow her the honour of seeing him and to 
enter Paris ; but that she felt sure that he was too kind- 
hearted to compel her to make the return journey to 
Grenoble in the state in which she then was, prostrated 
by the heat and the rapidity with which she had travelled 
thither, and accordingly begged him to permit her to 
enter the Abbey of Lys, a convent situated near Melun, 
about two hours' journey from Fontainebleau. 

M. de Crequi suggested that she should write a note 
to the King to that effect, promising to deliver it imme- 
diately on his return. He kept his word, and the follow- 
ing morning one of the royal pages arrived at Fontaine- 

1 This wretched auberge seems to have been chosen for the sake 
of effect, as the Duke of Modena, who had a palace at Fontainebleau, 
had placed it at her disposal ; but the offer had been declined. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 315 

bleau, bearing the permission the Constabless had re- 
quested, and an order to the Abbess of Lys to receive 
her. La Gilbertiere, who had arrived at the same time 
as the page, was charged to escort her to the convent. 

Soon afterwards, came a messenger from Colbert, 
bringing her " two purses of live hundred pistoles each, 
on behalf of the King, which his Majesty had given 
orders to send her, and this sum he continued to pay 
every six months during the time that I remained under 
his protection." 1 

The Constabless saw in these attentions of the King, 
and particularly in the permission to reside at Lys, so 
near to Fontainebleau, signs of a disposition on his part 
to relax the severity he had lately shown towards her ; 
and she was, in consequence, extremely mortified at 
finding on her arrival at Lys that she was to be treated 
like a prisoner of State, that she was to be kept under 
the strictest surveillance, and that no one was to be 
allowed to visit or communicate with her, save her 
sisters, Mesdames de Soissons and de Bouillon, and 
their husbands, unless by special permission. 

However, the abbess and the nuns showed her the 
greatest consideration, and did everything possible to 
mitigate the rigour of her imprisonment. Both her 
sisters came to see her and overwhelmed her with 
presents and caresses, the Comtesse de Soissons, who 
appears to have forgotten their former rivalry in her 
hatred of the La Vallieres and Montespans, sending her 
a sumptuous bed, ornamented with tapestries, and other 
costly articles of furniture, to relieve the bareness of her 

1 Madame de Scudery wrote to Bussy-Rabutin : " She [the Con- 
stabless] replied playfully to M. de Crequi that she had often heard of 
people who gave money to ladies in order to see them, but never not to see 
them." 



316 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

cell. However, poor Marie was very far from happy, 
and the abbess, who had received instructions from 
Colbert to furnish him with the minutest details con- 
cerning her charge, informs the Minister, in one of her 
letters, that the Constabless " has always appeared very 
gay since she has been here, but, in reality, we believe 
that she is very wretched." 1 

While the Constabless was fretting behind the walls 
of her convent, the Nuncio in Paris continued to press 
for a definite answer to the demands which Clement X 
and Cardinal Altieri had addressed to Louis XIV. But 
the King, true to the middle course which he had 
resolved to adopt, showed no disposition to surrender 
the lady to her husband, and the Nuncio invariably re- 
ceived the same assurance, namely, that, while the King 
was prepared to use every possible persuasion to induce 
the Constabless to return, he would not force her to do 
so or even refuse her an asylum in his dominions. At 
length, at the end of August, Louis XIV decided to 
return a positive answer to the representations of the 
Vatican, and wrote Clement X a very cold letter, wherein 
he presumed that " his Holiness had been informed by 
the Nuncio of all the reasons which had prevented him 
replying earlier to his brief of 22 June touching the 
retreat of the Constabless Colonna into his realm," and 
that " his Holiness had seen, from all the orders that he 
had issued relative to the affair, that he had an equal 
desire with his Holiness to contribute in every possible 
way to re-establish that confidence which had at first 
existed between two persons who ought to be so closely 
united." 

1 Letter of 27 August 1672, published by Amedee Renee, " Les 
Nieces de Mazarin." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 317 

After this very plain hint, the Vatican declined to 
take any further steps on behalf of the Constable, and 
though Colonna called upon the French Ambassador at 
Rome to protest against the conduct of the King, he got 
little consolation in that quarter, and the Ambassador 
wrote to the Minister for Foreign Affairs that he was of 
opinion that the Constable was more moved by the 
scandal which his wife's flight had aroused than by a 
sentiment of the heart, " which," he added, " is 
sufficiently diverted by other amusements." Evidently, 
Cardinal d'Estrees was quite au courant with the gossip of 
the Eternal City. 

It would appear that Louis XIV sympathised far 
more deeply with the troubles of his old love than that 
lady had any idea. The curt messages he had sent her 
by La Gilbertiere and the Due de Crequi had been pro- 
voked by her unexpected arrival at Fontainebleau and 
her evident determination to ignore the wishes he had ex- 
pressed in the letter which she had received at Grenoble. 
But his anger did not last long, and, on the return of 
the Comtesse de Soissons from her visit to Lys, the 
King sent for her to ask news of her sister, and also 
requested Colbert to submit to him the reports which 
he received from the abbess ; and, on learning how 
irksome Marie found the restraint to which she was 
subjected, gave orders that she was to be allowed to 
take walks in the Forest of Fontainebleau, though 
always well accompanied. 

The Constabless, however, was of course unaware 
of the more favourable disposition of his Majesty 
towards her, or of the reply which he had made to 
the demands of the Vatican for her surrender, and, as 
time went on, she became more and more incensed 



3 i8 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

against the King, who, after countenancing her flight, 
now treated it as a crime, and had transformed the 
asylum he had promised her into a prison. An incident 
which occurred towards the end of September put the 
finishing touch to her resentment. 

Colbert, to whom Louis had entrusted the entire 
direction of the princess's affairs, took upon himself to 
inform her that she would be expected to defray the 
cost of the maintenance of herself and her attendants 
at the convent out of the money which the King had 
sent her at Fontainebleau. As the Constabless had 
already expended the greater part of that sum in re- 
plenishing her wardrobe and in repaying the courier 
Marguien for the money he had disbursed on her behalf 
during the journey from Grenoble, she was extremely 
indignant, and, under the impression that the order had 
emanated from the King himself, wrote to the Minister 
" a very imprudent letter, complaining of the little con- 
sideration that his Majesty had for her, to which, she 
added, that, since he was unwilling to give her liberty 
to go to Paris, he should at least accord her that of 
going anywhere else she might wish." 1 

The tone of this letter deeply offended the King, and 
the enemies of the Constabless did not fail to profit by 
the occasion to persuade him that she was too near 
Paris, and that, one fine day, she would escape and 
make her appearance there. Louis XIV, fearful of such 
an event, which would be sure to provoke a grave 
scandal, thereupon directed Colbert to inform Marie, 
on his behalf, that she must choose a convent sixty 
leagues distant from Paris, and that, after the letter she 
had just written, she was no longer deserving of his 
protection. 

1 " La Verite dans son jour." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 319 

This new disgrace threw the poor lady into the depths 
of despair, and she wrote imploring Colbert to inter- 
cede for her with the King and obtain his pardon, pro- 
testing that she had regretted what she had written " so 
soon as she had recovered her self-possession." Colbert 
replied that his Majesty had been graciously pleased 
to accept her excuses, but that he persisted in his 
resolution to send her sixty leagues from Paris, and 
begged her to notify him without delay what convent 
she had selected. The Constabless informed the Minis- 
ter that she would repair to whatever convent his 
Majesty might be pleased to name, and she added : 
" Only tell the King that I ask to speak to him once 
more before I go. That will be for the last time in 
my life, and I shall return to Paris no more. Grant 
me this favour, I implore you, Monsieur, and, after 
that, I promise him that I will go even further, if he 
desires it, being always very disposed to obey him." 

To this touching letter Louis XIV replied himself, 
though not until after an interval of several days, which 
leads us to suppose that Colbert very probably had not 
deemed it advisable to show it him. 

Louis XIV to the Constabless Colonna. 

"Versailles, 29 September 1672. 
" My Cousin, — Being desirous of giving you a con- 
venient abbey to which you may retire and dwell in full 
security during the time you remain in my realm, I have 
found that the one most likely to be in accordance with 
your wishes is that of Saint-Pierre, of my town of 
Rheims, of which the Dame d'Orvel is abbess ; and for 
that purpose, so soon as I receive your final response to 
this letter, I will send the Sieur Goberti 1 to conduct you 

1 Presumably, La Gilbertiere. The Abbess of Lys, in a letter to 
Colbert, speaks of him as La Giberti. 



320 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

thither. On this, I pray God that he will have you, my 
cousin, in his holy and worthy keeping." 1 

"And that," writes poor Marie, "was all the reply 
that I received to my letter." 

Four or five days later, La Gilbertiere arrived with a 
coach and an order to the Abbess of Lys for the Con- 
stabless to leave her convent, and escorted her, together 
with the faithful Morena and three other waiting- 
women — whom the Constable, anxious, in spite of his 
indignation against his wife, that she should maintain a 
suite in accordance with her rank, had sent from Rome 
— to the Abbey of Avenay, three leagues from Rheims 
and thirty from Paris. The King had thus diminished 
by half the distance of her exile. 

This abbey, which had been chosen by Louis XIV, at 
the last moment, in place of that mentioned in his letter 
to Marie, was a noble chapter, which served as a retreat 
for ladies of very high rank. Its superior was Madame 
Brulart de Sillery, grand-daughter of Henri IV's Chan- 
cellor of that name, who "received her with every mark 
of esteem and kindness that it was possible to desire." 

Notwithstanding the efforts of the good abbess, the 
poor lady seems to have been profoundly miserable, as 
the convent was too far from Paris to permit of the 
visits of her relatives, and there was, therefore, nothing 
to relieve the tedium of her existence. However, after 
she had been there about three months, she received a 
visit from her brother, the Due de Nevers, whom she 
had not seen since they parted on such unfriendly terms 
at Grenoble. Struck by his sister's melancholy, the 
duke judged the moment favourable to make a last 

1 Biblioth&que Nationale MSS. cited by Chantelauze, ** Louis XIV 
et Marie Mancini," 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 321 

effort to bring about a reconciliation between her and 
her husband, or, failing that, to induce her to leave 
France, and accordingly told her that it was perfectly- 
hopeless for her to expect any amelioration of her lot 
so long as she remained in France, as the Queen and 
Madame de Montespan would be certain to check any 
inclination towards clemency that the King might show. 
Marie replied angrily that the King was grievously mis- 
taken if he imagined that the severity with which he had 
thought fit to treat her would have the effect of inducing 
her to return to the Constable, and that rather than do 
so, she would leave France and seek " a more hospitable 
country." 

This was exactly what her brother, who appears to 
have been acting in concert with Louis XIV and also 
with the Constable, wanted ; but since he feared some 
fresh scandal, unless he first succeeded in calming the 
state of exasperation in which she then was, he promised 
to ask permission of the King for her to remove from 
Avenay to his house at Nevers. A few days later, he 
returned with the desired permission, and Marie joy- 
fully quitted the abbey, but not before her brother had 
extracted from her a promise that, in the event of any- 
thing occurring to oblige him to leave Nevers, she would 
at once enter another convent. 

After the Constabless had passed a very pleasant week 
at Nevers, where her charming sister-in-law, nee Diane 
de Thianges, overwhelmed her with kindness, the duke 
suddenly announced that important business called him 
to Venice, and reminded her of her promise. Marie, 
though in despair at being separated from the duchess, 
thereupon made the round of the convents in the town, 
but, not finding one to her liking, suggested that she 
should accompany her brother as far as Lyons, where 



322 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

the convents were more commodious than those at 
Nevers. The duke acquiesced readily enough, for, as 
we have said, it was his object, if he could not prevail 
upon his sister to return to her husband, at any rate to 
induce her to leave France, and at Lyons she would be 
within a short journey of the frontier. 

On reaching Lyons, where they were received by the 
Marquis de Villeroi, in the absence of his father, the 
duke of that name, who was governor of the province, 
the Constabless visited several convents, and had almost 
decided to enter that of Sainte-Marie de la Visitation, 
situated on an eminence which commanded a view of the 
whole city, when " destiny, ever the enemy of her happi- 
ness, inspired the Marquis de Villeroi and her brother 
to dissuade her, and they succeeded so well in exaggerat- 
ing the sufferings which she had endured in France, and 
the ill-treatment which she had received from the King, 
that she took the resolution to leave it and withdraw 
into Italy, without, however, informing them of the part 
to which it was her intention to proceed." 1 This, as 
will be anticipated, was Savoy, where her sister Hortense 
had already found an asylum. 

Foreseeing that his wife was not unlikely to take this 
resolution sooner or later, the Constable Colonna had, 
some weeks previously, begged Cardinal d'Estrees, the 
French Ambassador at Rome, to communicate with the 
Duke of Savoy, in order to ascertain whether he would 
be willing to admit the princess into his realm, in the 
event of her desiring to come thither. The Constable 
was, above all things, anxious to get his wife out of 
France and out of reach of Louis XIV, and, since he was 
on friendly terms with Charles Emmanuel, he did not 
doubt that that prince would do everything possible to 
1 " La Verite dans son jour." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 323 

persuade his wife to return to him, and, if she refused, 
very probably consent to surrender her into his hands. 

To the cardinal's letter the Duke sent a very favour- 
able reply, promising not only to receive the Constabless, 
should she demand his protection, but " to make use of 
the greatest diligence to dispose her, by the good offices 
that he might judge most efficacious, to lend ear to an 
agreement so proper and so laudable (i.e. a reconciliation 
with her husband)." 

And so it came about that when Marie wrote to 
Charles Emmanuel to solicit his protection and permis- 
sion to enter some convent in Savoy or Piedmont, she 
received in reply a very courteous letter, readily grant- 
ing her request and inviting her to Turin. 



CHAPTER XVII 

Cordial reception of the Constabless by Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy — 
She enters the Convent of the Visitation at Turin — A touching in- 
cident — Kindness of the Duke of Savoy to Marie — His reply to the 
representations of the Vatican — He falls in love with the Constabless 
— Don Maurizio di Bologna and the bravoes — Visit of the Marchesa 
Paleotto to Marie — Alarm of the latter — She goes to visit the 
Duchesse de Mazarin at Chambery — Selfish conduct of Hortense — 
Return of Marie to Turin — Arrival of the Marchese di Borgomainero 
— Treaty between the Constabless and her husband — Marie goes to 
reside with the Prince de Carignan — Irritation of the Constable — 
Louis XIV, at his solicitation, orders the Prince de Carignan to send 
the Constabless away — Charles Emmanuel invites her to La Venerie 
— Her dazzling position — Nature of her relations with the Duke of 
Savoy considered — She quarrels with Charles Emmanuel — Vain 
attempts of the Duke to effect a reconciliation — Louis XIV refuses 
the Constabless permission to enter a convent in France — She sets out 
for Flanders with Borgomainero. 

TV/TARIE arrived in Piedmont at the end of January 
' ■ 1673, and was met at Rivoli by a gentleman of 
the Duke's household, with one of the royal carriages 
and an escort of guards, who conducted her to Turin. 
Some distance from the city she was met by Charles 
Emmanuel himself, accompanied by a number of gentle- 
men on horseback, all eager to behold this beautiful 
Constabless, whose adventures had been for the past few 
months the talk of Europe. 

The Duke received his fair guest most cordially, 
begged her to enter his own coach, and seemed so much 
impressed by the charms which had come so near to up- 
setting all Mazarin's carefully-laid schemes that he could 

324 



FIVE AIR SISTERS 325 

hardly take his eyes from her face, until the lady, in 
some embarrassment, lowered her veil. In the mean- 
while, they had entered Turin and arrived at the Con- 
vent of the Visitation, where his Highness had given 
orders for the best apartment to be prepared for the 
reception of the Constabless. The Archbishop of 
Turin was at the gate to receive them, and, while 
Marie went to her apartment to make some change in 
her dress, the Duke, who had received the archbishop's 
authorisation to enter the convent with her, waited in 
the garden. Presently the lady joined him, and, not- 
withstanding the cold, they paced the garden together 
for two hours, conversing with great animation. Before 
leaving, the prince, in the most delicate manner con- 
ceivable, begged his companion to regard him as her 
treasurer, if ever she happened to be in need of money. 
" This is all I possess," answered Marie, and, quickly 
unclasping the top of her corsage, she showed him a 
superb string of pearls which she wore round her neck. 
" It is the necklace which the King gave me when I left 
for Brouage," she added, in a tone of deep emotion. 
" It shall never leave me." 

The Duke subsequently related this incident to M. de 
Gomont, the plenipotentiary whom Louis XIV had sent, 
at his request, to arrange terms of peace between Savoy 
and Genoa. Gomont duly informed his master, and the 
King, touched by this souvenir of the past, promptly re- 
mitted to the Constabless a further sum of one thousand 
pistoles, although this pension had originally been pro- 
mised her only so long as she remained in France. 

Turin was at this period one of the gayest and most 
brilliant Courts in Europe. The Duke and Duchess, 1 

1 Marie Jeanne de Savoie-Nemours, only daughter of the Due de 
Nemours. 



326 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

both young and fond of pleasure — the former rather 
too much so, from all accounts, though his numerous 
gallantries do not seem to have lessened the affection he 
had always felt for his wife — neglected nothing to attract 
to their Court foreigners of distinction and the wealthiest 
and most magnificent of their own nobility. Splendid 
receptions, balls, fetes, ballets, tournaments, horse-races 
in summer and sleigh-races in winter, followed one 
another in rapid succession, and scarcely a day passed 
without the courtiers being called upon to assist at one 
or more of these diversions. Poor Marie, shut up in her 
convent, was of course precluded from participating in 
any of the gaieties which were going on around her ; but 
the good-natured and gallant Duke, pitying the loneli- 
ness and monotony of her life, visited her frequently, 
and, on one occasion, gave orders that the start for a 
sleigh-race should take place under the convent walls, 
in order to afford her some amusement. 

The Constable Colonna, who was duly informed of 
this incident by the Nuncio at Turin, was highly indig- 
nant. In his eyes, the Convent of the Visitation ought 
to be a prison, of which the Duke of Savoy would be 
the gaoler, and here was the prince evidently bent on 
doing everything in his power to relieve the tedium of 
his wife's existence ! Nor did the reports which reached 
him of the frequent visits which the Duke paid to the 
convent tend to promote a more amiable frame of mind, 
and he accordingly spurred on the Vatican to make the 
same demands to Charles Emmanuel as it had previously 
to Louis XIV. Cardinal Altieri extracted another brief 
from the aged Pontiff, who must have been by this time 
heartily tired of hearing the name of his " beloved 
daughter," the Constabless Colonna ; and the Nuncio 
was instructed to make strong representations to the 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 327 

Duke on the subject ; but all to no purpose. Charles 
Emmanuel replied that he had already urged the lady to 
be reconciled to her husband in such " severe " terms 
that he had caused her to shed tears ; but that he had 
given her his word that he would not permit any violence 
to be employed against her, and that he would accord 
her his protection whether she decided to remain at 
Turin or to go elsewhere. The Nuncio protested ; the 
Duke declared that nothing could induce him to go back 
on his word, and the diplomatist sorrowfully informed 
the Vatican that " he greatly feared that it would be im- 
possible to obtain anything from him." 

Gradually the restrictions to which the Constabless 
had at first been subjected were removed. The Nuncio, 
at bottom a kind-hearted man, petitioned the Vatican 
to allow the devoted Morena, who, on account of her 
religion, had been excluded from the convent, to join 
her mistress, and the request was acceded to. Next, 
the Archbishop of Turin granted her permission to 
receive as many visitors as she pleased in her little apart- 
ment, and Gomont and the French Ambassador, Servien, 
visited her two or three times a week. Finally, she was 
even allowed to take walks outside the convent walls, 
which was altogether contrary to the rules of Italian 
convents, far more rigorous than those of France. 

For these concessions Marie was no doubt indebted 
to the good offices of Charles Emmanuel. The Duke 
was falling more and more under the spell of his guest's 
charms, and " paid her interminable visits," which soon 
became the chief topic of conversation in both Court 
and town ; and it was whispered that the Constabless had 
established as complete an empire over the mind and 
heart of his Highness as she had formerly exercised 
over Louis XIV's. 



328 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

These reports duly reached the Constable Colonna, 
who thereupon despatched one of his confidants, a certain 
Don Maurizio di Bologna, ostensibly on a visit of 
courtesy to his wife, but in reality to spy upon her 
actions and keep him informed of all that concerned 
her. About the same time, a band of bravoes arrived 
in the neighbourhood, and the Constabless was convinced 
that they had been sent by her husband to carry her off, 
if she were indiscreet enough to venture far from the 
convent. Don Maurizio pretended that they were in 
the pay of the Governor of Milan, and had come in 
search of a man who, having committed an assassination 
in that city, had fled to Turin ; but, in order to reassure 
the princess, the Duke of Savoy caused them to be 
expelled promptly from his dominions. 

Soon after this incident, Marie received a visit from 
her husband's former enchantress, the Marchesa Paleotto. 
This lady, who had long since been abandoned by 
Colonna for fresh conquests, but had never pardoned 
his defection, sought to persuade the Constabless that 
it was commonly believed at Rome that, if her husband 
ever succeeded in getting her into his power again, he 
would certainly cause her to be made away with, and 
darkly hinted that the object of Don Maurizio in 
coming to Turin was to bribe one of her waiting- 
women to poison her. She succeeded in alarming the 
Constabless to such an extent that she had an attack 
of fever, which greatly disturbed the Duke, who sent his 
own physicians to visit her three times a day and wrote 
her numerous letters of sympathy with his own hand. 

On her recovery, the princess confided to Charles 
Emmanuel the fears which oppressed her, and though 
the Duke offered to send her her meals every day from 
his own table, under the pretext that the doctors had pre- 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 329 

scribed for her a special diet, nothing would satisfy her 
but to leave Turin and take refuge with her sister 
Hortense at Chambery. The Duke, who had tried 
every possible means to dissuade her, was, of course, 
in despair at the prospect of her departure, but she 
consoled him by a promise that she would not be absent 
more than a month. She set out for Chambery at the 
beginning of April 1673, 1 m one °^ tne prince's car- 
riages and escorted by some of his guards, while, to 
render her still more secure, Charles Emmanuel gave 
orders that, for that day, horses were not to be furnished 
to any one, save the courier of the French Embassy ; 
and when Don Maurizio demanded horses in order to 
follow her, they were refused him. The greatest 
secrecy as to her destination had been preserved, and 
it was the belief in Turin that she was on her way to 
England, where Charles II, whom she had met fre- 
quently at the French Court during his days of exile, 
had instructed Lord Montague, the English Minister to 
Savoy, to offer her an asylum. 

During the weary months which poor Marie, wounded 
to the heart by the severity of Louis XIV and tormented 
by the persecutions of her husband, had been spending 
in convents at Lys, Avenay, and Turin, Hortense, in- 
stalled in the ducal chateau at Chambery, had been lead- 
ing a very different kind of life. The generosity of Charles 
Emmanuel enabled her to maintain a semi-royal state, 
and to gather around her a little Court, composed of the 
nobility and the high officials of the province ; and we 
may presume that she had no lack of adorers, without 
whom she would have found even the most sumptuous 

1 M. Chantelauze says that she " escaped " from the convent, but this 
is incorrect. 



33o FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

existence difficult to endure. The Duke invited her to 
his hunting parties, entertained her magnificently at his 
country residences, and occasionally came to pay her 
homage at Chambery. As for her husband, she troubled 
very little about him, except to apply to him for the pay- 
ment of the pension of 24,000 livres which Louis XIV 
had promised her, and which seems to have been occasion- 
ally in arrears, since, in September 1672, we find her 
writing to the King, begging him to command M. de 
Mazarin to disgorge without further delay, and " not 
to reduce her to the extremity of not knowing where 
to lay her head." 

On receiving the letter announcing that her sister 
was on her way to visit her, Hortense was anything but 
delighted. Beneath an appearance of good nature and 
a readiness to oblige in small things, the beautiful 
duchess concealed a thoroughly selfish heart, and now, 
forgetting the obligations under which Marie had 
placed her, in the fear that she might compromise her 
own interests with Louis XIV, and perhaps forfeit her 
pension by extending to her her hospitality, she sud- 
denly remembered a vow which she had made to Saint- 
Francis of Sales, and the accomplishment of which 
would not permit of a moment's further delay, and 
hastily quitted Chambery without saying a word as to 
her destination. 

Marie was naturally much incensed at the conduct of 
her sister, and after remaining a few days at Saint-Inno- 
cent, as the guest of the bishop, returned to Turin, 
where she had the additional mortification of learning 
that Louis XIV, at the solicitation of her husband, who 
appears to have been under the impression that France 
had been her objective, had issued the most stringent 
injunctions to the officials of the frontier provinces to 




lgraving by G. Vallet 

CHARLES EMMANUEL II, DUKE OF SAVOY 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 331 

prevent her entering his realm. However, the Duke 
of Savoy showed himself so delighted at her return, and 
paid her such delicate attentions, that she soon recovered 
her spirits, and profited by the permission which she had 
obtained to leave the convent once a week to attend several 
hunting-parties and other entertainments which Charles 
Emmanuel gave at his country-seat of La Venerie. 

Having tasted the sweets of liberty once more, the 
Constabless began to find the restrictions of convent life 
more irksome than ever, and she implored the Duke to 
permit her to leave her cloister. The prince, only too 
anxious to have greater facilities for enjoying the society 
of the lady to whom he had now completely lost his heart, 
communicated with the Constable, who despatched an 
envoy to Turin in the person of Don Carlo d'Este, Mar- 
chese di Borgomainero. 1 Between this nobleman and the 
Prime Minister of Savoy, the Marchese di SanTommasso, 
interminable pourparlers took place, until the latter de- 
clared that no affair of State had ever occasioned him such 
trouble and annoyance. At length, a kind of treaty was 
drawn up, whereby it was arranged that the Constabless 
was to be permitted to remain at large for the space of 
four months, but on the condition that she should not 
quit the dominions of the Duke of Savoy, who, on his 
side, undertook to prevent her departure. If, on the 
expiration of the four months, the lady still declined to 
return to her husband, she must then select a convent 
(those in the Ecclesiastical States and all States subject to 
the Spanish Crown excepted), and remain there during 
the Constable's good pleasure. 

Marie now quitted her convent and accepted the 
invitation of the Prince de Carignan, brother of the 

1 He was the second son of Filippo Francesco d'Este and Margherita, 
legitimated daughter of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy. 



332 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Comte de Soissons, to take up her residence at his 
palace. Here she was so hospitably entertained that the 
Constable, informed by his agents, Don Maurizio and 
Borgomainero, of the minutest details concerning his 
wife, became exceedingly angry, and wrote a very dis- 
courteous letter to the prince, complaining that the hos- 
pitality which his wife was receiving at his palace was 
the principal motive of her persistent refusal to return to 
Rome, and accusing him of encouraging her in her con- 
tumacy. 

M. de Carignan informed the Prime Minister, and 
the lady's affairs had by this time assumed so much im- 
portance that a Council of State was held to consider 
what course to pursue. In the meantime, however, the 
irate Constable had appealed to Louis XIV, who, anxious 
to avoid any appearance of supporting the Constabless 
against her husband, wrote to the Prince de Carignan, 
who was a French subject, ordering him to send her away. 
The prince, in great distress, informed his guest of the 
receipt of the King's letter, which, he said, left him no 
alternative but to obey, and Marie, in high dudgeon, at 
once quitted the palace, without even taking leave of 
her host, and hurried to La Venerie, where Charles 
Emmanuel then was, to inform him of the manner in 
which she was being treated. The chivalrous Duke im- 
mediately offered her the hospitality of La Venerie, and 
a few days later, the Constable Colonna had the mortifi- 
cation of learning that his wife was installed in one of 
the finest suites of apartments in the ducal residence. 

The position now occupied by the adventurous prin- 
cess was in many respects similar to that which she had 
enjoyed at the French Court during the two years which 
had preceded her exile to La Rochelle. It was in her 
honour that all the hunting-parties, fetes, and ballets 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 333 

were arranged ; every day she received in her apartments 
the foreign Ministers and the principal personages of 
the Court, and she exercised over the Duke the most 
absolute empire, for the Duchess of Savoy was the 
most complacent and unsuspicious of consorts, and there 
was no Mazarin to interfere. What was the exact nature 
of that empire is difficult to determine ; the Duke was 
certainly of a very ardent temperament, and his conquests, 
or what he flattered himself were conquests, were in- 
numerable. But, on the other hand, the Constabless had 
hitherto shown herself as discreet in affairs of the heart 
as she was rash and impetuous in other matters ; and 
we are, therefore, inclined to think that his Highness 
remained a soupirant, " toujours afflige y jamais desespere" as 
that most ingenious of literary forgers, La Beaumelle, 
makes Madame de Maintenon say of Louis XIV. 

One cloud alone obscured the brightness of the prin- 
cess's horizon : the thought that, in a few short weeks, she 
would have to choose between a reconciliation with her 
now detested husband and a return to the solitude and 
monotony of convent life. Marie, however, was never 
one of those who take thought for the morrow, and the 
knowledge that this delightful existence must so soon 
come to an end caused her to plunge with an added zest 
into the pleasures of the moment. 

But, ever unfortunate, her evil star was soon in the 
ascendant again. She quarrelled with the Duke and 
quitted his realm, to fall into a succession of misfortunes 
far greater than those which she had hitherto experienced. 
Let us listen to her own account of the matter : — 

" My happiness was too great. Fortune, which de- 
lighted in tormenting me, took care not to permit it to last. 
To interrupt, accordingly, its course, she inspired his 
Royal Highness with political sentiments, and impelled 



334 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

him one day to propose to me to return to Rome, point- 
ing out that I should be much happier there than in a 
cloister, and that, if there were any obstacle to my return, 
besides the ill-feeling existing between the Constable and 
myself, he would be the guarantor of our reunion. 

" This proposal, joined to other things that he said to 
me at La V6nerie, shocked me so much that, following 
the impulse of my hasty temper, I determined to set out 
immediately to return to the convent. And this I did, 
although the Duchess of Savoy hindered my departure 
and kept me a week longer, at the expiration of which 
time they both accompanied me to the convent." x 

According to Lucien Perey and Marie and Hortense's 
Italian biographer, Signor Domenico Perrero, 2 the Con- 
stabless, in her " Memoires," has told us only a portion of 
the truth. The real facts were as follows : — 

The Duchess of Savoy, although as we have men- 
tioned, one of the most complacent and unsuspicious of 
consorts, was beginning to be somewhat alarmed at the 
assiduous attentions paid by the Duke to their beautiful 
guest, and the influence which the latter exercised over 
her husband. The prince, perceiving this, proposed one 
day to Marie that, in order to allay any suspicions which 
might have arisen in his consort's mind, it would perhaps 
be as well if, now and again, he were to insist, in the 
Duchess's presence, on the advisability of a reconciliation 
between the Constabless and her husband. Unhappily 
for herself, Marie appears to have misunderstood him, 
and when, shortly afterwards, his Highness proceeded 
to put his little plan into execution, she flew into a 
violent passion, brusquely quitted the room, and, the 

1 " La Verite dans son jour." 

2 Lucien Perey, " Marie Mancini Colonna." Perrero, " La Duchessa 
Ortensia Mazzarino, la Principesse Maria Colonna, et il duca Carlo 
Emanuele II di Savoia." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 335 

same evening, announced her intention of immediately 
returning to the convent. 

At the request of the Duchess, Marie, as she has told 
us, consented to remain another week at La Venerie, 
during which the Duke attempted to heal the breach 
between them ; but to no purpose. However, he did 
not abandon hope, and, after the Constabless's return to 
the convent, sent the Prime Minister, San Tommasso, 
to endeavour to bring the lady to a more reasonable 
frame of mind. But his efforts were equally fruitless, 
and Marie directed him to inform his Highness that 
she had determined to relieve him of the burden of her 
presence so soon as the four months mentioned in the 
agreement with the Constable had expired, and that 
nothing could alter her resolution. 

Still hankering after her beloved France, the Consta- 
bless wrote to Louis XIV, begging him to permit her to 
enter some convent within his realm and informing him 
of the agreement which she had entered into with her 
husband, whereby she had solemnly engaged not to leave 
whatever religious house she might decide to enter with- 
out his express permission. This, she imagined, would 
relieve his Majesty's mind of all fears of her suddenly 
descending upon him at Versailles or Fontainebleau. 
She also wrote to Colbert and to other Ministers, en- 
treating them to intercede for her with the King. 

Louis XIV, as might have been foreseen, refused to 
accede to her request — or rather, he ignored it ; but he 
directed Colbert to send her a further sum of a thousand 
pistoles, since he did not wish it to be supposed that his 
refusal had been prompted by motives of economy. 

Marie now resolved upon a most fatal step. The 
Constable Colonna, who had of late adopted a much 
more conciliatory tone towards his wife, even going so 



336 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

far as to second her request to Louis XIV to allow her 
to re-enter France — he had, of course, previously taken 
care to ascertain that there was not the remotest likeli- 
hood of such a request being granted — now suggested 
that, since France was closed to her and she did not 
wish to remain in Savoy, she should enter some convent 
in Flanders, whither he would send his friend the Mar- 
chese di Borgomainero to escort her. The Constabless 
had at first entertained the most profound distrust of 
this personage, whom she regarded as the creature of 
her husband ; but he was a handsome man of insinuating 
manners, and he ended by gaining her entire confidence 
and in convincing her of his own and the Constable's 
good faith. And so, notwithstanding the warnings of 
the French plenipotentiary Gomont, who entertained a 
warm regard for the Constabless, and entreated her not 
to trust Borgomainero, Marie resolved to proceed to 
Brussels, and, on 15 October 1673, ^ft Turin, in com- 
pany with the marquis and a certain Abbate Oliva, whom 
the Constable had sent from Rome to act as her chaplain. 
Charles Emmanuel, to whom, the lady tells us, she 
went to bid adieu, " more from ' motives of courtesy 
than of inclination," overwhelmed her with reproaches, 
and appeared deeply grieved by her determination to 
leave his realm, " imploring her earnestly to tell him 
whither she was bound, and assuring her that in no 
country would she find a prince more devoted to her, or 
one who would accord her more powerful protection." 
" I listened," she adds, " to his reproaches and his offers 
with great attention, and, in taking leave of him, 
thanked him for the latter, which my resolution to quit 
his State left me no longer room to accept. He gave 
me his hand and conducted me to the coach in which 
we departed." 



CHAPTER XVIII 

A comedy of errors — The Constabless is warned by the French pleni- 
potentiaries at Cologne not to enter Flanders — She is lodged in the 
citadel of Antwerp, and finds herself a prisoner — She obtains per- 
mission to enter a convent at Brussels — But, at the last moment, 
changes her mind, and takes sanctuary in a church — She returns to 
Antwerp — Letter from the Duke of Savoy — The Constable Colonna 
gives his consent to her entering a convent in Madrid — She embarks 
for Spain with Don Ferdinando Colonna — Her arrival in Spain — 
The Admiral of Castile — Marie's stay at his house — She enters the 
Convent of San Domingo-el-Real — Permission to leave it refused her 
— She escapes, but is induced to return — Her letter to Charles II 
of England — Publication of Marie's apocryphal Memoirs — Her 
genuine Memoirs — Recall of Don Juan of Austria to Madrid — 
Second escape of the Constabless — She is compelled to return — The 
Council deliberate on her case — She flies to Ballecas, but is again 
brought back — The Constable Colonna, appointed Viceroy of 
Aragon, arrives in Madrid — His interview with his wife — Entry of 
the young Queen, Marie Louise d'Orleans, into Madrid — The 
Constabless takes refuge at the French Embassy — Severe orders of 
Carlos II in regard to her — The Queen takes her part — She is 
forcibly carried off and imprisoned in the Alcazar of Segovia — She 
promises to become a nun, and enters the Convent of the Conception 
at Madrid — Brief of Innocent XI — Marie declines to carry out her 
promise, and scandalises the nuns — She is set at liberty. 

' I k HE Constabless, accompanied by Borgomainero, 
the Abbate Oliva, the faithful Morena, and a 
valet de ckambre, took the St. Bernard route, but the 
rest of her suite, with the greater part of her baggage, 
travelled by way of the Milanese, intending to rejoin 
their mistress at Mayence. And this division of their 
forces resulted in an amusing little comedy. The Con- 
stable Colonna, who, in spite of his assurances to the 
2 337 



338 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

contrary, had not the smallest intention of keeping faith 
with his wife, had no sooner been informed of her in- 
tention to leave Turin than he sent a courier to the 
Duque d'Ossuna, the Governor of the Milanese, with 
whom he was on intimate terms, begging him to arrest 
his wife and keep her until further instructions from 
him. He apparently, however, neglected to inform 
Borgomainero of his intentions, so that the only prison- 
ers whom the governor secured were Marie's waiting- 
women, one of whom, called Nanette, being a very 
handsome and distinguished-looking young woman, was 
mistaken by the officer in command of the soldiers sent 
to arrest them for her mistress, and treated with every 
imaginable honour ; nor was it until she had been in a 
very luxurious kind of captivity at Ancona for nearly 
a week that the mistake was discovered, and she and her 
companions permitted to resume their journey. The 
Constable, on hearing of what had occurred, hastened to 
disavow the governor's action ; nevertheless, it seems 
scarcely credible that Marie should still have persisted 
in her belief in his good faith, and that, when she 
arrived at Cologne, where the abortive Congress was 
then sitting, she should have refused to listen to the 
warnings of the French plenipotentiaries, Courtin and 
Barillon, who begged her not to venture into Flanders, 
as, from information they had received, they had not the 
least doubt that she would be arrested the moment she 
set foot on Spanish territory. On arriving at Malines, 
she was received with great courtesy by the governor of 
the town, but informed that he had orders from the 
Comte de Monterey, the Governor of Flanders, not to 
allow her to proceed to Brussels, where she had decided 
to enter the Couvent de Barlemont, until everything was 
ready for her reception. A few days later, Monterey 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 339 

sent one of his suite to request the princess to proceed 
to Antwerp, whither instructions had been sent to pre- 
pare apartments for her reception in the citadel. Here 
she was again received with great respect, and conducted 
to the fortress by the governor himself and an escort of 
nobles. But when, a day or two later, she expressed a 
wish to take a drive into the town, she was informed 
that it could not be permitted, and, going to the door of 
her apartment, found an officer and two guards stationed 
there. 

From that day she was treated like a State criminal, 
prohibited from receiving visitors, and even from com- 
municating with her friends. However, having pressed 
the Comte de Monterey to permit her to enter a convent 
at Brussels, her request was eventually acceded to, and 
Borgomainero was charged to prepare an apartment for 
her in the Couvent des Anglaises in that city. She set 
out for Brussels, accompanied by the captain of the 
governor's guards, but, ascertaining in the course of 
the journey that the Couvent des Anglaises was little 
better than a prison, and that every imaginable precau- 
tion had been taken to guard against any possibility of 
her escape, she resolved that nothing should induce her 
to enter it, and took sanctuary in an adjoining church, 
" under the pretext of making her devotions," which 
she absolutely refused to quit, unless the governor would 
promise her permission to enter some convent of her 
own selection. 

The captain of the guards sent for the governor, 
who, finding entreaties and threats equally unavailing, 
sent, in his turn, for the Nuncio and the Archbishop 
of Brussels, to obtain their authorisation to enter the 
church and remove the lady by force. The ecclesiastics, 
however, anxious to avoid scandal, counselled ^patience, 



340 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

and Monterey, having posted a guard at the door of 
the church, withdrew. The princess, on her side, had 
resolved to spend all night in the church, when a 
worthy citizen named Bruneau, with whom she had 
some slight acquaintance, entered and begged her to 
leave the church and enter his house hard by, warning 
her that the governor had only desisted from employing 
force for fear of scandal, and that, so soon as night fell, 
the soldiers had orders to tear her from her sanctuary. 
The lady consented, and repaired to M. Bruneau's 
house, around which the soldiers immediately posted 
themselves, and rendered it " more secure than the 
tower of Danae." 

After " sobs and tears " had failed to procure any 
mitigation of her lot from the stony-hearted governor, 
the Constabless implored him to allow her to proceed to 
Madrid and enter a convent there. Overjoyed at the 
prospect of being relieved of his troublesome charge, 
the Comte de Monterey wrote to the Constable, urging 
him to give her the desired permission. In the mean- 
time, as he found himself obliged to proceed to Antwerp 
and to withdraw his guards, he begged the princess to 
return to the citadel, promising that she should be 
treated with less rigour, and that he would even permit 
her an occasional drive, under the escort of the lieu- 
tenant of the fortress. And, having first insisted on 
his signing a sort of treaty embodying these conditions, 
she consented. Here a letter full of expressions of 
tenderness and devotion from the Duke of Savoy was 
smuggled into the fortress by the faithful Morena, and, 
we are assured, produced on the wounded feelings of 
her mistress " the effect of a sovereign balm." From 
that time a regular correspondence was established be- 
tween Marie and Charles Emmanuel, which continued 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 341 

until the latter's untimely death in the following June ; 
but unfortunately none of these letters have come down 
to us. 

A few weeks later, Don Ferdinando Colonna, a natural 
brother of the Constable, arrived at Antwerp and in- 
formed Marie that her husband had given his consent 
to her removing to Madrid, and had charged him to 
escort her thither. Marie, thereupon, wrote to the 
Duque de Medina de Rio Secco, Admiral of Castile, 
who was a friend of her husband, to beg him to re- 
ceive her on her arrival in Madrid, and to the Queen- 
Dowager 1 to request permission to enter a convent 
there, and without waiting for an answer, she and Don 
Ferdinando travelled to Ostend and embarked on an 
English vessel, which, in nine days, landed them at 
San -Sebastian. Here they waited a week, when, 
having received no reply either from the Queen- 
Dowager or the Admiral, they continued their journey 
until they reached Alcobendas, a village three leagues 
from Madrid, where a courier met them with the ex- 
pected letters, both containing favourable answers. A 
little further on, they saw approaching at a gallop two 
handsome but unwieldy carriages, each drawn by six 
magnificent mules. They contained the Admiral of 
Castile, the Duque d'Albuquerque, the Marques d'Al- 
cagnicas, his second son, and the wives of the two last 
noblemen, who had come to receive their guest and con- 
duct her to a beautiful pleasure-house belonging to the 
Admiral in the environs of Madrid, " splendidly fur- 
nished and ornamented with the richest paintings in 
Europe." 

1 Maria Anna of Austria, daughter of the Emperor Ferdinand and the 
Infanta Donna Maria. She governed Spain during the minority of her 
son, Charles II, from 1 665-1675. 



342 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

The Admiral of Castile, although more than fifty 
years of age, was one of the handsomest as well as one 
of the wealthiest grandees in Spain, a great patron of 
art and letters and an amateur poet of some distinction. 
His love for the arts, however, was not his chief pas- 
sion, and he is said to have kept as many as sixteen 
mistresses in his immense palace in Madrid, without, 
however, in any way incommoding the duchess, who 
complacently ignored their presence. With the beauti- 
ful Constabless he fell deeply in love at first sight ; but 
the lady does not appear to have responded to his 
advances. 

The life now led by Marie was in pleasing contrast to 
the rigorous confinement to which she had been subjected 
at Antwerp and Brussels. She was splendidly lodged 
and " treated like a queen " by her host, who did every- 
thing possible to please and divert her, visited by the 
greatest families of the capital, the Nuncio and the 
foreign Ministers, and received by the Queen-Dowager. 
She was still, however, in a state of honourable captivity, 
and the Abbate Don Ferdinando Colonna watched over 
her with jealous care, and was terribly alarmed when, 
one day, accompanied by Morena, and without saying a 
word to any one, she went for a drive along the pro- 
menade by the river. This proceeding, the Nuncio 
Marescotti informs Cardinal Altieri, had greatly shocked 
the Court and society generally, as it was not the custom 
in Madrid for ladies of quality to frequent the public 
promenades, and he feared that, after this escapade, no 
grande dame would care to visit her. However, her 
friends excused the Constabless's conduct on the ground 
of her ignorance of Spanish etiquette, and the wrath of 
the fashionable world was appeased. 

After remaining for some three months in the 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 343 

Admiral's delightful residence, Marie, unwilling to be at 
any further expense to her host, requested permission of 
the Queen-Dowager to allow her to enter the convent 
of San Domingo-el-Real. It was contrary to the rules of 
Spanish convents to take pensioners, and the nuns refused 
to receive her, until the Queen-Dowager had declared, 
by a royal decree, that this favour would not be con- 
sidered a precedent. The princess entered the convent 
at the beginning of September 1674, escorted thither by 
the Admiral and the Nuncio. In order to enjoy greater 
liberty, she was given a house adjoining the monastery, 
precautions having first been taken to make it secure, 
One half she occupied herself; while the Abbate 
Colonna and her domestics were installed in the other. 
Don Pedro of Aragon, whom she had known during his 
Viceroyalty at Naples, from 1666 to 1672, furnished it 
from top to bottom with tapestries of great value. 

Perhaps the Constabless might have resigned herself 
to pass the remainder of her days in the convent of 
San Domingo-el-Real, where the abbess, Donna Vittoria 
Porcia Oroseo, and the nuns did all in their power to 
render her stay as pleasant as possible, if, as she had been 
fully led to expect, permission had been granted her, as 
at Turin, to go out once a week to visit her friends at 
the Court. But, on the express demand of her hus- 
band, this privilege was refused her, and, in great indig- 
nation at what she considered an unpardonable breach of 
faith on the part of the Court, Marie now demanded 
permission to return to Flanders and make her home 
with her second son Don Marco Colonna, who, although 
only a boy of thirteen, had recently, at her request, 
received the command of two companies of Spanish 
cavalry stationed there. The Queen-Dowager and the 
Admiral both wrote to the Constable to obtain his con- 



344 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

sent ; but Colonna replied that he preferred to know that 
his wife was in security in Madrid rather than at liberty 
elsewhere. 

Soon after this, the Marques de los Balbases, who 
had never forgiven the Constabless for the manner in 
which she had treated him on the occasion of their first 
meeting fourteen years before, when, it will be re- 
membered, he had pretended to be her husband, wrote 
to Rome, warning the Constable that it was his wife's 
intention to fly from Spain, as the result of which the 
unfortunate lady was kept under the strictest sur- 
veillance, and even the liberty which she had heretofore 
enjoyed to go wherever she pleased within the convent 
was curtailed. Her patience was now exhausted, and, at 
the beginning of November, taking advantage of the 
absence of the watchful Don Ferdinando, she effected her 
escape and took refuge at the house of one of her friends, 
from whence she wrote to the Admiral and other 
Ministers, to inform them that her intention was not 
to fly to France or England, as her enemies had falsely 
asserted, but only to reside in the house in which 
she then was, and begging them to assist her to obtain 
this concession. However, neither the Admiral nor 
his colleagues seemed disposed to assist her, and, after 
a week of comparative liberty, through the efforts of 
the Nuncio Mellini and the Admiral, the Constabless 
consented to return to her convent. Here a new 
difficulty presented itself, as the nuns refused to 
receive a lady who had caused such a scandal, and it 
was not until the Nuncio threatened them with ex- 
communication that they finally yielded. 

The Nuncio promised the Constabless to write to her 
husband and endeavour to prevail upon him to consent 
to her leaving the convent, begging her, at the same 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 345 

time, to give him her word that until his reply was 
received she would make no further attempt to escape. 
Marie declined, however, and, shortly afterwards, a 
second scandal was only prevented by the vigilance of 
Don Ferdinando. 

During the next two years, the life of the Constabless 
was uneventful ; she remained in her convent, chafing 
under the restraints to which she was subjected, and 
continually petitioning the Queen-Dowager and the 
Ministers to accord her her liberty ; but, since her 
husband absolutely refused to give his consent to her 
leaving her prison, her prayers were unproductive of 
any result. In March 1676, we find her writing to 
Charles II of England, who, during her stay at Turin, 
had, as we have seen, offered her an asylum in his realm. 
She makes no definite request, save that of retaining his 
friendship, but she no doubt hoped that he would 
interest himself on her behalf. 

The Constabless to King Charles II of England. 

"Madrid, 26 March 1676. 

" I should have given myself the honour of writing 
to your Majesty, if I had been able to hope that my 
letters would have been conveyed to him with all the 
secrecy that I wished. My desire to retain the kindly 
sentiments which your Majesty expressed for me, while 
I was at Turin, and my fear that you have been pre- 
judiced against me, impels me to ask you for their 
confirmation. Send it me, I entreat you, since I could 
receive nothing more opportune or more agreeable in 
the state in which I find myself. But let your Majesty 
accompany it with secrecy, since there is nothing of 
more importance, and since the good or ill success of 



346 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

my affairs depends upon it absolutely, as I depend upon 
your Majesty ; being all my life his most humble and 
very obedient servant." x 

About the same time, appeared a pamphlet entitled 
"Les Memoires de M.L.P.M.M. [Madame la Princesse 
Marie Mancini] Colonne, G. Connetable du Royaume 
de Naples." This little work, a tissue of gross false- 
hoods, took the same form as the "Memoires" which the 
Duchesse de Mazarin had just published in collaboration 
with Saint-Real, and this gave it a false appearance of 
authenticity, and caused it to command a ready sale. 
It had been, as a matter of fact, inspired, if not actually 
written, by Marie's enemy, the Marques de los Balbases, 
with the intention of injuring the poor lady still further 
in public estimation. 2 A copy fell into the hands of the 
Constabless, who, in high indignation, at once set to 
work on the compilation of her genuine Memoirs, 
which appeared under the title of " La Verite dans son 
jour.' The publication of this work, which, unfortunately, 
does not go beyond the year 1677, assisted by the 
version of it which Bremont published in Belgium, 
called the " Apologie ou les Veritables Memoires de 
Marie de Mancini, Connetable Colonne," did much to 
counteract the evil effect of the apocryphal Memoirs ; 
but unhappily the latter had a considerable start, and 
continued to be accepted by many persons as from the 
Constabless's own pen. 

1 British Museum MSS. 

2 This is the opinion of the latest and best-informed of Marie's French 
biographers, Lucien Perey; but M. Chantelauze, though acknowledging 
that the first part is undoubtedly spurious, expresses his belief in the 
authenticity of the second, which, however, he thinks was never intended 
for publication, and owed its appearance to some person to whom the 
Constabless had been so indiscreet as to lend the manuscript. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 347 

At the beginning of the year 1677, Carlos II decided 
to recall his half-brother, Don Juan of Austria, from his 
exile at Saragossa, to which the jealousy of the Queen- 
Dowager had relegated him, to entrust him with the 
chief share in the government of his kingdom. " It 
was at this moment," writes the Constabless, "that I 
saw appear a ray of hope, and remembering that Padre 
Ventimiglia, whose capabilities and rare talents had 
rendered him as illustrious as the nobility of his birth, 
had told me an infinitude of times that my liberty must 
be the work of this prince, and that his return would 
undoubtedly give it me, I considered seriously about 
taking advantage of an event so favourable, not doubt- 
ing that it would produce the effect for which I had 
been led to hope." 

In the belief that her unhappy lot could not fail to 
appeal to the generous and chivalrous Don Juan, not- 
withstanding the way in which she had treated his jester 
Capitor, during the prince's visit to the French Court 
in 1659, the Constabless could not bring herself to 
await his arrival in Madrid, and no sooner was she in- 
formed that he had quitted Saragossa, than she resolved 
to go and meet him. Accordingly, one fine day, she 
succeeded in effecting her escape, for the second time, 
and made her way to the house of the Marquesa de 
Mortara, sister-in-law of the abbess of the convent 
which she had just quitted. The marchioness, overcome 
with astonishment at this visit, received her unwelcome 
guest very courteously, but lost no time in writing to 
inform Don Garcia de Ledra, the President of the 
Council of Castile, of what had occurred ; while, on her 
side, Marie wrote to several grandees, begging them to 
assist her to carry out her intention. Two days later, the 
Nuncio, the Admiral, and the President of the Council 



348 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

came to visit her, bearing the King's order for her to 
return to the convent. The Constabless angrily refused, 
upon which her visitors gravely informed her that they 
were authorised to employ force, if necessary ; and the 
Marquesa de Mortara, adding her entreaties to their 
persuasions, the Constabless " condescended to return." 
This return was not easy, and the intervention of the 
Nuncio and a peremptory order from the King were re- 
quired to compel the now exasperated nuns to receive 
their penitent. 

A week later, Don Juan arrived in Madrid, and the 
Constabless lost no time in addressing to him a memorial 
reciting her woes and imploring him to redress them. 
Don Juan was about to grant her petition, when the 
King received a letter from Colonna, complaining of the 
recent flight of his wife, and begging that, for greater 
security, she should be imprisoned in a fortress. Don 
Juan thereupon laid both the memorial and the letter 
before the Council, which finally decided that Marie 
should be set at liberty and allowed to take up her resi- 
dence in a house suitable to her rank. As, however, 
the King judged it best to suspend the decree of the 
Council until he had received an answer to a letter 
which he had addressed to the Constable, the lady lost 
patience, made her escape from the convent for the 
third time, and proceeded to Ballecas, a village a league 
from Madrid. The Nuncio and Don Ferdinando pur- 
sued her, and persuaded her to return to the capital ; 
but, though she was not sent back to the cloister, the 
Council decided that, instead of being allowed to occupy 
a house of her own, she must reside in one with Don 
Ferdinando. 

Six months later, the Constable Colonna was appointed 
Viceroy of Aragon by Don Juan, who had need of his 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 349 

influence and that of his friends in his struggle against 
the party of the Queen-Dowager. To please the Con- 
stable, who had been much irritated by the permission 
accorded his wife to leave her convent, and in the hope 
of reconciling them, the prince begged Marie to return 
to her cloister, in order that her husband might find 
her there on his arrival at Madrid. She consented, 
declaring, at the same time, that she would not remain 
there more than three months. However, it was not 
until the beginning of November 1678, that Colonna 
reached Madrid, accompanied by his three sons and a 
party of his household. On the day of his arrival, he 
visited the convent of San Domingo-el-Real, where he 
and his wife, according to the Gazeta de Madrid^ " ex- 
changed the most lively demonstrations of joy and 
reciprocal affection, which caused one to hope more 
and more for their approaching reunion." 

How far these demonstrations of affection were sin- 
cere is difficult to say, but it would appear that, thanks 
to the efforts of the Nuncio, Marie was now better dis- 
posed towards her husband than she had been for a long 
time. She refused, however, to live with him or ac- 
company him back to Rome when he returned thither, 
but consented to follow him to Saragossa and enter a 
convent there, on the distinct understanding, however, 
that she was to be allowed to go out two or three times 
a week. 

However, the Pope, who had been appealed to, 
declined to grant her this permission, and, learning, 
about the same time, that her husband had brought with 
him to Saragossa a desperate character named Resta, 
who had fled from Rome to escape the punishment of 
his crimes, she became convinced that the Constable 
intended to employ this person to carry her off to Italy 



350 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

and perhaps assassinate her on the way, and absolutely 
refused to leave Madrid. 

The death of Don Juan of Austria, on 17 December 
1679, removed a friend upon whose powerful pro- 
tection she had always been able to rely. But the 
marriage of Charles II with Marie Louise d'Orleans, 
daughter of Monsieur and Henrietta of England, in- 
spired her with fresh hope, since she could not doubt 
that the daughter of a prince who, thanks to the 
Chevalier de Lorraine, had always defended her in- 
terests, would sympathise with her misfortunes. 

The young Queen made her entry into Madrid on 
13 January 1680, with all the pomp usual in such 
circumstances. 

"The Queen-Mother," writes Madame d'Aulnoy, 
" went in the morning to Buen-Retiro, which she left, 
some time later, in company with the King. They went 
together to see all the streets through which the Queen 
was to make her progress, and took up their position at 
the house of the Condesa de Onate, in a balcony made 
for the purpose, and having a lattice-window gilded all 
over. About eleven, the Queen, mounted on horse- 
back, and those who were to precede her began to march, 
and passed through a marble gate, which had been but 
lately erected. The kettledrummers and the trump- 
eters of the city, habited in the costumes usually worn 
in these ceremonies, led the procession ; after them 
came the Alcaldes, the nobility, and the knights of the 
three military Orders (St. James, Calatrava, and Alcant- 
ara), the gentlemen of the King's Household, the high 
officials of the Queen's, and the grandees of Spain, 
followed by a great number of lackeys, whose different 
liveries, gallooned with gold and silver, made an agree- 
able diversity. The Queen's equerries marched on foot 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 351 

before her, the Conde de Villa Mayana, her chief 
gentleman-usher, was on her right hand, and she was 
surrounded by her gentlemen -in -waiting and her 
pages (When she walked on foot, she always leaned on 
one of these). The Duquesa de Terranova and Dona 
Laura de Alagon followed her, both of them mounted 
on their mules and in their widow's weeds, which some- 
what resemble the costume of nuns, except that, when 
on horseback, they wear enormous hats, which are not 
less unsightly than the rest of their garb. Next, we 
saw the Queen's maids-of-honour, all very beautiful and 
richly dressed ; they were on horseback, and each was 
escorted by her relations, in the midst of whom she 
rode ; then came several beautiful horses, led by grooms 
in rich liveries. In the Prado, which is one of the most 
agreeable walks in Madrid, by reason of the fountains 
which water it, a gallery open on every side had been 
erected, with one-and-twenty arches, to which were 
affixed the Arms of the several kingdoms under the 
dominion of Spain. The Queen found, at the end of 
the gallery, a triumphal arch, very magnificent and well 
designed, through which she entered the city. The 
Corrigidors and the Rigidors, apparelled in scarlet and 
gold brocade such as the Castilians wear, presented her 
with the keys of the city, and with a canopy, which 
they carried over her head during the procession. The 
streets were adorned with the richest tapestries, and the 
precious stones that were to be seen in the Goldsmiths' 
Row were valued at eleven million. 1 

1 Another account says: "On each side of the street was a row of 
great angels made of pure silver. One saw there shields of gold, on 
which were inscribed the names of the King and Queen, with the Arms 
formed of pearls, rubies, diamonds, and other precious stones, of such 
richness and beauty that the connoisseurs declared that they were worth 
more than twelve million." 



352 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

" It would take too much time to describe all the 
magnificence of that day, and I shall therefore confine 
myself to saying that the Queen was mounted on a fine 
Andalusian horse, which, in this noble march, seemed 
proud to carry so beautiful and great a princess. 
Her gown was so covered with embroidery that its 
material was completely hidden ; she wore on her head 
white plumes blended with red, and a pearl called there 
the l Peregrina,' which is as big as a small Catherine 
pear and is of inestimable value, hung below a clasp of 
diamonds which decorated her hat. She wore on her 
finger the great diamond of the King, which, so they 
assert, surpasses in beauty anything that was ever set in 
a ring. But the graceful deportment of the Queen in 
all her actions, and particularly in the management of 
her horse, and the charm of her person made a greater 
lustre than all the precious stones she wore, although it 
is certain that people were well-nigh dazzled by the 
glitter of them. She halted below the balcony of the 
Condesa de Ofiate to salute the King and Queen- 
Mother. They opened the lattice about four fingers' 
breadth, in order to see her, and the King, taking his 
handkerchief in his hand, carried it several times to his 
lips, his eyes, and his heart, which is the most gallant 
action that a Spaniard can perform. The Queen con- 
tinued her way, and the King and the Queen-Mother 
received her in the court of the Palace. He assisted 
her to alight, while the other, taking her by the hand, 
conducted her to her apartments, where she embraced 
her repeatedly, telling her that she was but too happy to 
have such an amiable daughter-in-law." 1 

Before the departure of the Constable for Saragossa, 
Marie had expressed a desire to leave her convent 

1 " Memoires de la Cour d'Espagne." 




From an engraving by L'Armessin 

MARIE LOUISE DORLEANS, QUEEN OF SPAIN 



354 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

the rest of her hair in disorder and badly combed ; 
very beautiful pearls round her neck ; 1 an agitated 
manner, which would not become any one else, but 
which, for her, seemed rather natural ; beautiful teeth." 

The Ambassador, in great embarrassment, for the 
lady had announced her intention of remaining at the 
Embassy until she was forcibly ejected, started off for 
Balbases's house "to find some way out of the difficulty." 
It was suggested that the Constabless should retire to 
her convent ; but the nuns absolutely refused to receive 
her, and the other convents followed suit. " I was 
obliged," writes M. de Villars to Louis XIV, "to 
summon the Nuncio and some ladies among her 
friends, and, after a long and difficult negotiation, 
which lasted until midnight, we have brought her back 
with her own consent to the marquis's house." 

A few days later, by order of the King, the Consta- 
bless was sent to a convent of Franciscan nuns at 
Cien-Puzuales, some five leagues from Madrid. Here 
she remained for a month, when Colonna returned to 
the capital, and she was brought back and installed in 
her external apartment at the Convent of San Domingo- 
el-Real, "where the Constable went every day to con- 
verse with her in her parlour, and to pay her attentions 
such as a lover might pay to his mistress." 2 

These attentions on the part of the Constable were 
not without an ulterior object. He desired to obtain 
his wife's consent to transfer part of the dowry which 
Mazarin had given her to their eldest son Filippo, Prin- 
cipe di Palliano, for whom he desired to arrange a 
marriage with the daughter of the Spanish Prime 
Minister, the Duque de Medina Coeli. After some 

1 Presumably, the pearls given her by Louis XIV. 

2 Madame d'Aulnoy, " Memoires de la Cow d'Espagne." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 355 

hesitation, Marie agreed to what was demanded of her, 
thanks to which the marriage was decided on, and the 
Constabless quitted the convent and went to reside at 
her husband's palace, each of them occupying a separate 
floor. 

For the first time for several years, Marie now 
enjoyed the fullest liberty, visiting and receiving whom 
she pleased, and going regularly to pay her court to the 
Queen, who treated her with the utmost kindness. In 
September 1680, the Constable returned to Saragossa, 
leaving his wife in his palace at Madrid. Soon after- 
wards, she was officially informed that the King had 
decided to interfere no more in her affairs, and that 
nothing remained for her but to obey her husband and 
go wherever he might desire her, whether to Italy or 
elsewhere. The next day, she was forbidden to leave 
the house, the following one, to receive any visitors. 
Beside herself with fear, for the sinister figure of the 
Constable's myrmidon Resta was for ever before her 
eyes, she besought his Majesty to shut her up in the 
most austere convent in Madrid rather than deliver her 
to the tender mercies of her husband. But her petition 
was ignored, although, thanks to the intercession of the 
young Queen, the King's orders were not immediately 
executed. 

In the meanwhile, the Constabless declared that she 
would refuse to sign the contract by which a consider- 
able part of her fortune was to be assured to the Prin- 
cipe di Palliano, and would make the hospitals of the 
city her heirs. This sudden resolution greatly alarmed 
the Duque de Medina Coeli and his family ; they appealed 
to the Nuncio, who had great influence over Marie, 
promising that the King should continue to afford her 
his protection, and that she should be treated with every 



356 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

possible consideration, if she would but renounce the 
decision at which she had just arrived. The princess 
eventually yielded, but, in return for this concession, 
obtained an audience of the Queen, who, in response 
to her appeal, exacted from the Duque de Medina Coeli 
his word of honour that during her absence at the 
Escurial, for which she was about to set out, no 
violence should be employed against the Constabless. 
A few days, however, after the Queen's departure, the 
duke and Balbases, thinking the opportunity too good 
a one to be lost, obtained an order from the Junta, 
whom Carlos II had ordered to decide upon the differ- 
ences between the Constabless and her husband, to have 
the lady shut up in a fortress. 

One night, Marie, reassured by the promise which 
had been made her, was sleeping peacefully, when she 
was awakened by a loud knocking at the door, and the 
voice of Don Garcia de Medrano, Councillor of the 
Royal Council, informed her that he had come with an 
order from the King to convey her to the Alcazar of 
Segovia. She declined to open to him, upon which the 
councillor ordered the officers who accompanied him 
to force the door, which speedily yielded to their 
assault upon it. One of the invaders roughly seized 
the Constabless and prepared to tie her arms with a 
cord. Marie resisted desperately, and, snatching up a 
little knife which lay upon a table hard by, gave him a 
cut in the hand. Upon which, the rest of the company 
" fell upon her with barbarous fury, and dragged her by 
the hair of her head, half naked as she was, like one of 
the most abandoned of her sex," to a coach in which sat 
Don Ferdinando Colonna, who had not dared himself to 
assist in the outrage, and carried her off to the Alcazar 
of Segovia. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 357 

In the Alcazar of Segovia the unfortunate lady re- 
mained for nearly four months, in the closest confine- 
ment, seeing no one but the Queen's confessor and the 
kind-hearted Nuncio. To add to her misfortunes, the 
winter was an extremely severe one, and, in her bare 
and draughty room, the Constabless suffered terribly 
from the cold ; while the food served to her was of the 
poorest quality and abominably cooked. 

In the meanwhile, however, the miserable condition 
of the princess, of which the Queen's confessor and the 
Nuncio did not fail to bring back a faithful report to 
the capital, had begun to excite the greatest indignation 
in Madrid ; the Queen sent a vigorous remonstrance to 
the Constable, and the latter, finding the opinion of the 
Court against him, proceeded to make to his wife the 
most extraordinary proposition. He would consent, he 
informed her, to her returning to some convent in 
Madrid, but on condition that, on the very day on which 
she entered it, she should assume the dress of a novice, 
and, three months later, take the vows. He, on his 
side, also engaged to enter Orders and become a monk. 

As the Constabless had not the least inclination for 
the religious life, every one was persuaded that she 
would refuse even to consider such an offer. But, 
anxious at any price to escape from Segovia, she accepted 
it, though she was absolutely determined to die rather 
than make profession. She returned to Madrid on 
15 February 168 1, and entered at once the Convent of 
the Conception, in a state of the most profound dejec- 
tion. She declined to see her husband, but had an 
interview with her sons, to whom she said that " she 
esteemed herself the most unfortunate person in the 
world, and that she was about to take a step which would 
ruin the rest of her life, and the consequences of which 



358 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

she regarded with terror, but that, since she had passed 
her word, she was resolved upon it." 

"The Constabless Colonna," writes Madame de 
Villars, "arrived early on Saturday. She entered the 
convent ; the nuns received her at the door with tapers 
and all the ceremonial which is usual on such occasions ; 
then she was conducted to the choir, where she assumed 
the dress [of a novice] with a very modest demeanour 
. . . the dress is pretty and rather coquettish, the 
convent commodious." 1 

A few days later, a brief arrived from Innocent XI, 
whereby his Holiness permitted " Lorenzo Onofrio 
Colonna, Grand Constable of the kingdom of Naples, 
and Marie Mancini Colonna, Duchessa di Tagliacozzo, 
in order to appease the controversies and discussions 
which existed between them, and to enable them to pass 
the rest of their lives more tranquilly, and to assure the 
salvation of their souls, to embrace both of them by 
common accord and mutual consent the religious life ; 
she in some monastery of the town of Madrid, and he in 
one of the religious orders of the Hospital of St. John 
of Jerusalem." And his Holiness further permitted the 
said Marie Mancini Colonna, in consideration of her 
being of mature years and having already spent long 
years in convents, the "privilege" of abridging her 
novitiate. 

To Lorenzo Colonna the obliging Pontiff also granted 
certain privileges, permitting him to dispense with the 
usual vows of chastity and poverty and the obligation 
of making pilgrimages to the Holy Land, so that all the 
religious profession of the Constable consisted in wear- 
ing the Grand Cross of his Order. 

Marie, needless to say, did not avail herself of his 
1 Letter of February 1681. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 359 

Holiness's gracious permission to abridge her novitiate ; 
indeed, she absolutely refused to take the vows, and 
finally declined even to appear in her religious costume, 
"but wore petticoats of gold and silver brocade under her 
woollen robe, threw aside her veil, and arranged her hair 
a rEspagnole with ribbons of all colours. Sometimes it 
happened that she was summoned to an observance 
which she was compelled to attend. Then she resumed 
her robe over her ribbons and hair, which fell in curls 
over her shoulders ; this had a very pleasing effect." * 

But the effect upon the good Sisters of the Convent 
of the Conception was the very reverse of pleasing. 
They were unutterably shocked ; but to complain was 
useless. The Queen had conceived the greatest affection 
for the Constabless, and visited her constantly ; the King 
was entirely under his consort's influence ; the Nuncio 
was Marie's devoted friend. As for the Constable, he 
had played his last card and lost ; he ignored his wife — 
if a monk can be said to have a wife — and troubled her 
no longer. 

Unheard of privileges were granted to the lady, who 
was still nominally supposed to be preparing herself to 
become the bride of Heaven. She went for long drives 
in carriages sent her by the Queen ; she received all 
manner of people ; she visited the Court, where she was 
welcomed most graciously by Carlos II, who seemed 
anxious to atone to her for the severity with which she 
had been treated in his name. 

At length, however, the long-suffering nuns revolted ; 
and, in the early spring of 1686, the Constabless's old 
enemy Balbases succeeded in so disquieting the con- 
science of the good abbess that, one day when her 
novice had left the convent to attend a magnificent fete 

1 Madame d'Aulnoy, " Memoires de la Cour d'Espagne." 



360 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

given by the Admiral of Castile to the King and the 
two queens, she refused to permit her to return, and 
informed her that, since she appeared to find the wicked 
world so pleasant a place, she had better remain in it. 

"Deeply offended by this refusal, which was very 
galling for a person of her quality and merit," says 
Madame d'Aulnoy, "she set her friends to employ their 
influence with the King, who sent orders to the abbess 
to open her doors to the Constabless. The abbess and 
all the nuns persisted in their refusal, announced that 
they intended to present their reasons to his Majesty, 
and were coming to demand an audience of him." 
When Carlos II was informed of this, he burst out 
laughing and exclaimed : * I shall be very much amused 
to see this procession of nuns who should come 
chanting — 

Libera nos, Domine, de la Condestabile.' 

The nuns did not come, however, but decided to obey 
his Majesty's orders." 1 

The Marques de los Balbases did not fail to inform 
the Vatican of this incident, representing that force had 
been employed to compel the reluctant nuns to receive 
the Constabless. But, to his intense mortification, the 
only result of his interference was that the Pope, wisely 
concluding that the most effectual means to put a stop 
to such scandals was to set the lady at liberty, ordered 
her to leave the convent and forbade her to enter 
another. Shortly afterwards, the Constable, who knew 
that there was no likelihood of the King consenting to a 
second sojourn of his wife in the Alcazar of Segovia, 
decided to make a virtue of necessity, and consented to 
her being accorded complete liberty, a decision which 

1 Madame d'Aulnoy, " Memoires de la Cour d'Espagne." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 361 

greatly pleased every one concerned, with the exception 
of the malignant Balbases, who could not forgive him- 
self for having been the involuntary cause of the Con- 
stabless's restoration to freedom. 

But let us leave Marie in the enjoyment of her 
hardly won liberty, and see what had become of her two 
sisters who had remained at the Court of France. 



CHAPTER XIX 

The Poison Trials in France — The Duchesse de Bouillon and the Com- 
tesse de Soissons compromised — The magician Lesage accuses Madame 
de Bouillon of attempting to get rid of her husband — Her trial — She 
is acquitted, but exiled to Nerac — The Comtesse de Soissons and 
la Voisin — Louvois and Madame de Montespan conspire to ruin the 
countess — Louis XIV connives at her escape from justice — Her last 
evening in Paris — She flies to Flanders — Letter of Louvois to the 
President of the Chambre Ardente — Hostile reception which Madame 
de Soissons meets with in Flanders — An extraordinary story — She 
takes up her residence in Brussels — Marriage of her eldest son to 
Mile, de la Cropte-Beauvais — Early life of Eugene de Savoie. 

T^OR six years after Marie's second departure from 
France the lives of Olympe and Marianne were 
comparatively uneventful. In 1673, tne former lost her 
husband, who died rather suddenly in Champagne, 
while on his way to join the army under Turenne in 
Germany. M. de Soissons's death gave rise to sinister 
rumours, and the countess's enemies — and she had 
many and powerful ones — did not hesitate to ascribe 
it to poison administered by an agent of his wife. But, 
since the count had always been the most devoted 
and, at the same time, the most complacent of husbands, 
and her accusers were unable to attribute any satisfactory 
reason for such a crime, the charge would appear to 
have been entirely without foundation, even in view of 
the facts which we shall presently relate. 

In March 1679, tne countess was requested by 
Louis XIV to resign her post of Superintendent of the 

362 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 363 

Queen's Household, which was bestowed upon Madame 
de Montespan. This has been represented by some 
writers as a kind of disgrace ; but, as a matter of fact, it 
had no such significance. Madame de Montespan had 
endeavoured to prevail upon the King to appoint her to 
the office in question some years before ; but Louis had 
had sufficient consideration for his unfortunate consort 
to spare her this last humiliation. When, however, 
early in 1679, his Majesty transferred his affections to 
Mile, de Fontanges, and his illicit connection with the 
marchioness terminated, the former objections dis- 
appeared, and, with the idea of tempering the wind to 
the shorn lamb, and, at the same time, proclaiming to 
the world that all was at an end between them, he 
resolved to gratify her ambition. "On Wednesday 
[21 March]," writes Bussy-Rabutin, "the Comtesse 
de Soissons received the King's command to resign her 
post [as Superintendent of the Queen's Household]. 
The princess in question was at Chaillot, in a little 
house which she has there. M. Colbert was continually 
passing to and fro. In the evening, she spoke to the 
King in the Queen's apartments, and he complimented 
her highly upon the satisfaction which she had given 
her Majesty. She replied with all the respect imagin- 
able, and, finally, she has accepted 200,000 ecus ; J and 
Madame de Montespan has in this way become Super- 
intendent of the Queen's Household, and is no longer 
mistress. 2 

Of the Duchesse de Bouillon during this period we 
hear little. In 1675, the duke's family persuaded him 

1 Presumably petits hus of 3 livres, which, as Mazarin had given 
250,000 livres for this office in 1660, would represent a very handsome 
profit. 

2 Correspondance de Bussy-Rabutin IV., 354. 



364 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

to send his wife to the Couvent de Montreuil, "to give 
her an opportunity for salutary reflections." It would 
appear that the too pronounced encouragement given by 
the lady to the advances of the handsome Comte de 
Louvigny, younger son of the marshal of that name, 
which had occasioned a good deal of scandal and some 
piquant couplets, was the cause of this retirement. 
However, her exile only lasted a very short time, and 
she returned to Court with spirits unaffected by con- 
ventual life and more amused than any one at her 
misadventure. She resumed her former role of patroness 
of the poets, and became an assiduous frequenter of the 
Hotel de Vendome and the Temple, where the duke 
(afterwards the famous marshal) and the Grand Prieur 
de Vendome, sons of her eldest sister Laure, held high 
revel with their intendant the Abbe de Chaulieu. The 
two brothers, particularly the elder, seem to have 
cherished for their charming aunt feelings a good deal 
warmer than their relationship warranted, and though 
happily this passion did not terminate in a tragedy as 
that of the Chevalier de Soissons, youngest son of 
Olympe, for his aunt Hortense, 1 if any reliance is to 
be placed in the evidence given before the Chambre 
Ardente, of which we are now about to speak, it was 
certainly not the fault of the duchess. 

So far back as the year 1673, tne penitentiaries of 
Notre-Dame — without, of course, mentioning any names 
— had warned the police that the majority of women who 
had confessed to them for some time past accused them- 
selves of poisoning some one. This warning, strange 
to say, does not appear to have made much impression 
upon the authorities, and even the famous case of 
1 See p. 398 infra. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 365 

Madame de Brinvilliers, in 1677, the prelude to the 
grisly drama which was about to send a thrill of horror 
through Europe, left them still unmoved. Apparently, 
they inclined to the belief that the crimes of this fiendish 
woman were merely such as occur from time to time 
even in the best-regulated communities, and were not to 
be regarded as in any way typical of the state of public 
morality. 

However, towards the close of 1678, the authorities, 
roused at last from their lethargy by the discovery of 
a supposed plot to poison the King and the Dauphin, 
and led by the able and fearless Gabriel Nicolas de 
la Reynie, Lieutenant of Police, became exceedingly 
active; and some indiscreet words dropped by a woman 
called Marie Bosse led to her arrest and that of another 
woman named Vigoureux. On 10 January 1679, an 
Order in Council was issued, directing La Reynie to 
proceed against these women and their accomplices ; 
and, two months later, the police effected the arrest of 
the abominable monster la Voisin, one of the greatest 
criminals known to history. 

The state of affairs which the confession of this 
woman and her accomplices brought to light was the most 
appalling that the imagination can possibly conceive. 
" Human life is publicly trafficked in," wrote the Lieu- 
tenant of Police. "Death (by poison) is almost the 
only remedy employed in family embarrassments ; im- 
pieties, sacrileges, abominations are common practices in 
Paris, in the surrounding country, in the provinces." 

The consternation of the authorities on discovering 
that such frightful crimes were rampant in their midst 
was unbounded. Louis XIV shared the general horror 
and indignation, and gave orders that no stone should 
be left unturned to bring the offenders to justice ; and, 



366 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

with the view of avoiding the cumbersome proceedings 
of the ordinary courts, and, at the same time, of 
ensuring greater secrecy, a special commission was 
appointed, composed of the elite of the Councillors of 
State, presided over by Louis Boucherat, afterwards 
Chancellor, with La Reynie and Bazin de Bezons, of the 
Academy, as examining commissioners. 

This court was called the Chambre Ardente, not, as 
some writers have supposed, because it had power to 
condemn persons to the stake, though that was among 
its prerogatives and was exercised in the case of la 
Voisin, but because, in former days, tribunals specially 
constituted to deal with extraordinary crimes sat in a 
chamber hung with black and lighted by torches and 
candles. 1 

The Chambre Ardente met for the first time in the 
hall of the Arsenal on 10 April 1609, and on 15 May 
sentenced to death Madame Philbert, wife of the fashion- 
able flutist of that name, convicted of having made away 
with her first husband, a wealthy wholesale tradesman 
named Brunet, with poison procured from Marie Bosse. 
The hope, however, aroused in the breasts of lovers of 
justice by this rigorous sentence was not, unhappily, 
destined to be realised, and disgraceful miscarriages of 
justice occurred in the cases of Madame Dreux, the wife 
of a maitre des requites^ a lady of great beauty and of 
" infinite charm and distinction," who was convicted of 
having poisoned at least three persons, and of having 
offered la Voisin " 2,000 ecus, a ring, and a diamond 
cross to make away with her husband " ; and of Madame 
Leferon, found guilty of having poisoned her husband, 
the President of the first Cour des Enqueues, in order to 
enable her to marry a worthless adventurer named 
1 "Le Mercure Galant," 1679, p. 336. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 367 

de Prade, for whom she had conceived a violent passion. 1 
Soon the affair began to assume alarming proportions. 
The operations of the sorceresses and poisoners had 
been by no means confined to the bourgeoisie and the 
professional classes ; the Court was equally besmirched ; 
members of the noblest families in France were impli- 
cated, and, among them, were the Duchesse de Bouillon 
and her sister, the Comtesse de Soissons. 

One of the principal accomplices of la Voisin 2 was a 
man who called himself Lesage ; his real name was 
Adam Coeuret, and he appears to have been at one time 
a wool merchant, a calling which, however, he soon 
abandoned for the more profitable one of a magician. 
He had a remarkable talent for jugglery, by means of 
which he duped not only the people who came to avail 
themselves of his art, but even the witches with whom 
he worked. One of his favourite tricks was to make 
his clients write requests to the " Spirit " — as the devil 
was called — in notes, which he then enclosed in balls of 
wax and pretended to throw into the fire. Some days 
later, he would give them back their notes, saying that 
the "Spirit," who had received them through the flames, 
had returned them. 

In his examination before the commissioners on 
28 October 1679, Lesage stated that he had met the 
Duchesse de Bouillon at la Voisin's house, and that 
" that lady, having told him that she was aware that he 
could ensure the success of anything that she might 
desire," after some conversation, he told her to write 
down her requests, which she did, and he saw that she 

1 Ravaisson, "Archives de la Bastille," VI. 

2 La Voisin, when questioned about her relations with Madame de 
Bouillon, brought no charge against her, merely stating that the duchess 
had visited her house out of curiosity. 



368 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

demanded the death of the Due de Bouillon, her husband, 
and to marry the Due de Vendome, who was with her 
at the time she wrote the note. After this, Madame de 
Bouillon and M. de Vendome obliged him to come to 
the Hotel de Bouillon, where he pretended to throw a 
second note into the fire, as he had done the first ; and 
the lady, "wishing to engage him still further to do 
what she demanded in regard to her husband, brought 
a bag, containing a number of gold pieces, which she 
tried to induce him to accept." But he refused to take 
more than four pistoles, and, though the duchess had 
come several times to see him, he had always avoided 
her, " not wishing to have any dealings with her." 

This charge sounds puerile enough to us, though it 
was not so regarded at that time, when belief in magic 
and witchcraft was almost universal, and even such men 
as Bossuet were firmly persuaded of the efficacy of 
sorcery. But, in a second examination, Lesage made a 
far graver accusation against the duchess. This was to 
the effect that Madame de Bouillon had only had re- 
course to his magic after other means had failed, since 
la Vigoureux had told him that the lady had applied to 
her for poison to get rid of her husband ; but that, as 
the dose with which she had supplied her had failed to 
take effect, she had advised her to consult Lesage. 

The evidence against the Duchess of Bouillon was 
considered so serious that the Chambre Ardente, which 
had no power to arrest any one on its own authority, 
applied for a lettre de cachet for her apprehension, which 
was granted by the King, and, after being kept under 
arrest at her own house for some weeks, the duchess 
was brought to trial on 29 January 1680. Perhaps 
fortunately for her, la Vigoureux — who would, of course, 
have been the principal witness against her — had died 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 369 

under torture some time before Lesage's examination, 
and the knowledge of this fact no doubt accounted for 
the haughty tone which the lady thought fit to assume 
towards her judges. 

Madame de Bouillon proceeded to the Arsenal, sup- 
ported, on one side, by the Due de Vendome, and, on the 
other, by the husband, against whose life she was accused 
of conspiring, while a crowd of the nobility followed to 
show their sympathy. She entered the court " like a 
little queen," sat down on a chair that had been placed 
for her, and, instead of replying to the first question, 
asked to be allowed to enter a formal protest against the 
authority of the Chambre, declaring that " she had only 
attended out of deference to the King's command, and 
not for that of the court, which she did not recognise, 
as she declined to allow any derogation to the ducal 
privilege. 1 She refused to answer any questions until 
this had been taken down by the clerk of the court. 
Then she removed her glove and " disclosed a very 
beautiful hand," and the examination began. 

" Do you know la Vigoureux ? " 

" No." 

" Do you know la Voisin ? " 

" Yes." 

" Why did you want to do away with your husband?" 

" I do away with my husband ! Why, you have only 
to ask him if he thinks so ! He gave me his hand to 
this very door ! " 

"But why did you go so often to la Voisin's house?" 

" I wanted to see the Sibyls and prophetesses she 
promised to show me. Such a company would have 
been well worth all my journeys." 

1 The ducal privilege consisted in being tried by all the courts united 
in the Parliament. 

2 B 



37Q FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Then, after denying that she had ever shown la Voisin 
a bag full of money, she inquired with a mocking and 
disdainful air : 

" Well, Messieurs, is that all you have to say to me?" 

" Yes, Madame," was the reply : upon which the 
duchess rose and left the court, remarking as she did 
so : " Really, I should never have believed that men of 
sense could ask so many foolish questions." 

Such is the amusing account given of Madame de 
Bouillon's examination by Madame de Sevigne. 1 But 
the records of the court show that the accused was 
subjected to a very close examination in regard to her 
dealings with Lesage. She confirmed what that worthy 
had stated about his interview with her at la Voisin's 
house and his visit to the Hotel de Bouillon ; but abso- 
lutely denied that she had asked him to assist her to get 
rid of her husband, or that she had given him a note to 
burn containing such demands. However, this charge 
was of small importance in comparison with her alleged 
dealings with the poisoner la Vigoureux, and, as no 
further evidence was forthcoming in regard to that 
matter, the duchess was acquitted. She did not, how- 
ever, escape altogether, as Louis XIV, hearing that she 
had had the temerity to boast of having baffled the 
judges, exiled her to Nerac ; nor was she allowed to 
return to Paris for some considerable time. 

Far less fortunate than the Duchesse de Bouillon was 

1 Letter of 31 January 1680. Voltaire, in his " Siecle de Louis 
XIV," relates an amusing passage of arms between the duchess and La 
Reynie, in which the latter got decidedly the worst of the encounter. 
" Did you ever see the devil at la Voisin's house, since you went there to 
meet him ?" inquired the Lieutenant of Police. "Monsieur," replied the 
lady, " I see him here at this very moment. He is disguised as a judge, 
and very ugly and villainous he looks." The questioner proceeded no 
further. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 371 

her elder sister Madame de Soissons. After a con- 
fession made by la Voisin on 9 October 1679, the 
examining commissioners, La Reynie and Bazin de 
Bezons, drew up the following report : — 

" She [la Voisin] declared to us that the Comtesse de 
Soissons, feeling somewhat aggrieved because the King 
had neglected her and no longer appeared to have any 
kindness for her, was one day at her house, in company 
with Madame de la Ferte and Mile, du Fouilloux, 1 who 
appeared to have not long recovered from the small- 
pox ; and the Comtesse de Soissons, without saying 
who she was, made her [Voisin] go into her garden, 
where the lady gave her her hand to look at, after 
examining which, she told her that she saw there a solar 
line, which was strongly denned, and showed that she 
must have been loved by a great prince. Upon that, the 
Comtesse de Soissons asked her abruptly if that would 
not return. She replied that it might possibly return ; 
but the lady rejoined that it was very necessary that it 
returned, and that she absolutely declined to be made a 
dupe of, and spoke to her on the subject of La Valliere 
as being the cause of the aversion which the King 
appeared to have for her, and demanded the means of 
getting rid of Mile, de la Valliere. 

" And when she [la Voisin] told her that that would 
be a very difficult matter, the lady replied passionately 

1 As la Voisin never seems able to remember dates, it is often very 
difficult to fix even approximately the time at which the events she speaks 
of occurred. But she gives du Fouilloux the title of demoiselle, so that 
the visit of that lady and the Comtesse de Soissons to her house must have 
occurred previous to January 1667, when the former became the wife of 
the Marquis d'Alluye. Moreover, the countess expresses herself in her 
interview with la Voisin with an indignation which would appear to indi- 
cate a comparatively recent grievance, and we shall therefore probably not 
be far wrong in dating the incident during the early years of La Valliere's 
" reign," probably after the failure of the Spanish letter plot. 



372 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

that she would certainly find a means, and that, if she 
were unable to avenge herself, she would carry her 
vengeance further and would spare nothing. But, on 
that, she [la Voisin] told her that it was necessary to 
bide her time for the satisfaction which she desired, and 
not to do anything inopportunely. And she was not 
aware until after the conversation, and when the lady 
was going away, that it was the Comtesse de Soissons to 
whom she had spoken ; and it was Mile, du Fouilloux 
who informed her of the fact, at the time when 
Mesdames de la Ferte and du Fouilloux were leaving 
her house. She believed herself obliged to say also that 
she was not aware if the Comtesse de Soissons per- 
severed or not in her design, and that she did not see 
her, except on that one occasion." 

On 1 6 January 1680, la Voisin was interrogated, by 
La Reynie and Bazin de Bezons, at Vincennes, in regard 
to her relations with the Comtesse de Soissons, when 
she confirmed the statements she had made in her con- 
fession. 

Asked if the Comtesse de Soissons did not tell her 
the means she proposed to employ to avenge the wrong 
she had suffered, she replied that the lady only declared 
that "she would destroy both [the King and La Valliere]." 

Asked if it were true that she had had constant 
relations with Madame de Soissons, and had visited her 
at her hotel, she replied that she had never seen the 
countess, save on the occasion mentioned. 

Questioned as to whether Madame de Soissons had 
applied to any one else to further her designs, she 
answered that, so far as she was aware, she had not. 1 

" The examinations to which la Voisin was subjected," 
says M. Funck-Brentano, in his admirable work on the 
1 " Archives de la Bastille, VI : Interrogatoire de la Voisin." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 373 

Poison Trials, " were very numerous. They brought 
out innumerable details on a multitude of crimes, in 
which a very large number of persons were implicated. 
The declarations of the terrible sorceress were submitted 
to careful investigation by examining magistrates like 
Nicolas de la Reynie. All her declarations were found to 
be accurate} 

That Madame de Soissons did, therefore, visit la 
Voisin, indulge in threats against the King and La 
Valliere, and demand " means to get rid of" the latter 
is practically certain ; that she ever obtained the "means" 
she sought, either from la Voisin or any one else, much 
less actually attempted to put her criminal design into 
execution, is highly improbable. 

However that may be, the admissions of la Voisin 
brought the countess's career at the French Court to 
a sudden and sensational termination. She had, as 
we have mentioned, powerful enemies. Madame de 
Montespan, not yet herself implicated in this terrible 
affair, 2 hated her, as she had hated every one for whom 
the King had shown any predilection. Louvois hated 
her, too, because she was the friend of Colbert, and also, 
if the lady herself is to be believed, because she had re- 
fused to give her daughter in marriage to his son. The 
two conspired together to ruin her, as, ten years before, 
they had conspired to ruin the Due de Lauzun ; and 
they succeeded. 

But Louis XIV did not wish the countess to be pro- 
ceeded against. This reluctance was due less probably 
to consideration for the woman who had been the play- 

1 " Le Drame des Poisons." 

2 For a full account of Madame de Montespan's connection with the 
poisoners, see M. Funck-Brentano's " Le Drame des Poisons " and the 
author's " Madame de Montespan " (London : Harpers ; New York : 

Scribners, 1903). 



374 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

mate of his childhood and the mistress of his youth, 
than to the fear that his own dignity might be com- 
promised by a trial which would have involved the 
public discussion of royal frailties which would not bear 
the light. When, therefore, the Chambre, urged on by 
Louvois, demanded her arrest — together with that of her 
friend and confidante, Madame d'Alluye — we have men- 
tioned that the Court had no power to arrest any one on 
its own authority — the King delayed sending the neces- 
sary warrant for three days, and, in the meanwhile, des- 
patched her brother-in-law, the Due de Bouillon, to 
the Hotel de Soissons to offer the countess her choice 
between the Bastille and exile. 

" On Wednesday she was playing at bassette," 1 writes 
Madame de Sevigne ; " M. de Bouillon entered ; he 
begged her to step into her cabinet, and told her she 
must leave France or go to the Bastille. She did not 
hesitate ; she made the Marquise d'Alluye leave the 
card-table, and they did not reappear. The hour for 
supper arrived. It was said that the countess was sup- 
ping in town. Every one went away, persuaded that 
something extraordinary was happening. In the mean- 
time, a great deal of packing went on. They took 
money and jewellery ; the lackeys and coachmen re- 
ceived orders to put on their grey justaucorps ; eight 
horses were harnessed to her coach. She made the 

1 Madame de Soissons was a great gambler. During the campaign of 
1678, when the Court accompanied the army to Flanders, Colbert de 
Saint-Pouange, one of Louvois's agents, wrote from Lille to the War 
Minister : " The day before yesterday M. de Langlee, who kept the 
bank, lost 2,700 pistoles, of which Madame de Montespan and the 
Comtesse de Soissons won a considerable part." The countess's exploits 
in this direction were, however, mere bagatelles in comparison with those 
of Madame de Montespan, who was one of the greatest gamblers who 
ever lived, and was accustomed to win or lose hundreds of thousands of 
livres at a single sitting. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 375 

Marquise d'Alluye, — who, it is said, did not wish to go 
— enter it with her, and two waiting-women took their 
seats in front. She told her people not to distress 
themselves on her account, as she was innocent ; but 
that it had suited those scoundrelly women [la Voisin 
and her accomplices] to mention her name. She was in 
tears. She made her way to Madame de Carignan's 
hotel, and left Paris at three o'clock in the morning." 1 

On 24 January, the day after the countess's flight, 
Louvois wrote to Boucherat, the President of the 
Chambre Ardente : — 

"The King has sent two officers of his guard to 
arrest Madame la Comtesse 2 and Madame d'Alluye ; 
they have orders to render an account to you of what 
they may do, and the Chancellor has desired that one 
adds to their instructions that, in the event of their not 
finding these two ladies, they should inform you of it 
and return with the ushers whom you will give them to 
make a formal report of their search for these ladies, 
after which the Chambre will be able to commence the 
proceedings against them for contumacy which it may 
judge proper. These same officers have instructions to 
leave some of the King's guards in the houses of these 
ladies, if you deem that necessary." 3 

This letter was, of course, merely a piece of minis- 
terial diplomacy which deceived no one, either in the 
Chambre or at the Court ; but Louvois considered it 
necessary, in order to conceal from the general public 
the share which the King had taken in the escape of the 
two ladies. 

1 Letter of 30 January 1680. 

2 This, as we have said elsewhere, was the official title of the Comtesse 
de Soissons, just as the wife of Monsieur was called Madame and the 
wife of the Prince de Conde, Madame la Princesse. 

3 "Archives de la Bastille," VI. 



376 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Madame de Soissons having crossed the Flemish 
frontier, wrote to the King, offering to return and stand 
her trial, provided that she was not subjected to the 
indignity of imprisonment in the Bastille or at Vin- 
cennes before her case was adjudicated upon. The 
condition was refused ; her trial was the very last thing 
which Louis XIV desired. 

She continued her journey towards Brussels, but the 
news of the charges against her had preceded her, and 
the principal inns in the towns and villages through 
which she passed refused to receive her ; and on more 
than one occasion she was compelled to sleep on straw 
and suffer the insults of the populace, which reviled 
her as sorceress and poisoner. 1 " We are assured," 
writes Madame de Sevigne, " that the gates of Namur, 
Antwerp, and other towns have been closed against the 
countess, the people crying out : * We want no 
poisoners here.' Henceforth, in foreign countries, a 
Frenchman and a poisoner will be the same thing." 2 

At Brussels, the capital of the Spanish Netherlands, 
the municipal authorities did not dare to shut their 
gates against a princess connected by marriage with 
the Court of Madrid, and the Comte de Monterey took 
her under his protection. Nevertheless, her sojourn 
there was, at first, far from a pleasant one, and every 
time she ventured out she was assailed by the vilest 
insults. Madame de Sevigne relates an extraordinary 
story, which she had from the Due de la Rochefoucauld, 
the son of the author of the " Maximes." 

1 According to Choisy, Louvois had despatched an agent to Flanders, 
who distributed money among the people to stir them up against the 
countess, and she was one day forced to spend the night in a shop where 
she had gone to buy lace, as a howling mob had assembled outside, 
threatening to tear her to pieces. 

2 Letter of 2 1 February 1680. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 377 

" One day, soon after her arrival at Brussels, Madame 
de Soissons went to church. As she was entering the 
building, she was recognised, whereupon a number of 
people rushed out, collected all the black cats they 
could find, tied their tails together, and brought them 
howling and spitting into the porch, crying out that 
they were devils who were following the countess." 1 

Madame de Soissons, however, remained at Brussels, 
and gradually the storm which had been raised against 
her subsided. A little court gathered about her, and as, 
in spite of her forty-two years, she was still very attrac- 
tive, she did not lack for admirers, prominent among 
whom was the Prince of Parma, who, towards the close 
of the year 1680, succeeded the Comte de Monterey 
as Governor of the Netherlands. 

Two years after her flight from France, Olympe 
learned of the marriage of her eldest son, the young 
Comte de Soissons ; he had espoused Mademoiselle 
de la Cropte-Beauvais, one of the second Madame* s 
(Princess Palatine) maids-of-honour, whom Saint-Simon 
describes as " beautiful as the most beautiful day," 2 and 
who had had the distinction of having repulsed the 
advances of Louis XIV. 3 

The Comtesse de Soissons and her mother-in-law, the 
old Princesse de Carignan, were furious at this misal- 

1 Letter of 20 February 1680. 

2 She was the natural daughter of an equerry of the Prince de Conde. 
According to Saint-Simon, when her father lay on his death-bed, the 
Prince went to visit him and entreated him to marry the mother, " repre- 
senting the position in which, in default of this marriage, he would leave 
so beautiful a creature as his daughter"; but Beauvais refused. 

3 The Princess Palatine writes : " I had a Jille d'honneur named 
Beauvais. She was a very honest creature. The King became enamoured 
of her, but she remained firm. Then he turned his attention to the 
Fontanges girl, who was also very pretty, but without any intelligence." 
" The Fontanges girl," as all the world knows, did not long remain 
obdurate. 



378 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

liance, and both promptly disinherited the poor youth. 
Louis XIV, however, showed himself more indulgent 
towards the marriage, and gave the count a pension of 
20,000 livres, which, though sufficient to keep him from 
want, was quite inadequate to enable him to support 
his position as a Prince of the Blood. A brave soldier, 
like his father, he might, under ordinary circumstances, 
have hoped for advancement in his profession. But 
Louvois, who hated him, for his mother's sake, refused 
him promotion, and at length, in disgust, he entered the 
service of the Emperor, and was soon afterwards killed 
in battle against the Turks. His wife retired for a time 
to a convent in Savoy, and afterwards returned to Paris, 
where she died in middle life, "still beautiful as the 
day," according to Saint- Simon. She had several 
children, all of whom died young. 

Olympe's second son, Philippe de Savoie, who is 
described by the Princess Palatine as " a great fool, 
ugly, awkward, and always with a wild look about him, 
with a hawk-like nose, a large mouth, and hollow 
cheeks," and her third son, called the Chevalier de 
Savoie, both died at a comparatively early age — the one 
from small-pox, the other through an accident. Of the 
youngest, called the Chevalier de Soissons, we shall have 
something to say in our next chapter. 

The fourth of the countess's five sons, Eugene 
Maurice, amply atoned to her for the misfortunes of his 
elder brothers, and left behind him a name which will 
endure for all time. It was the custom in noble families, 
where there were several sons, for one of them to take 
Orders, and as Eugene's physique — he was very short, 
very slight, and a little crooked — seemed to unfit him 
for a military career, his mother insisted on his entering 
the Church, and he was given three abbeys, one in 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 379 

France and two in Piedmont. However, the youth, 
though he appears to have been an intelligent and 
industrious student, soon discovered that he had no 
inclination whatever for an ecclesiastical career, and 
applied to Louvois for a commission in the army. His 
request was harshly refused, and Louis XIV, when 
appealed to, declined to interfere, and spoke of him dis- 
dainfully as " the little abbe." 

After the peace of Nimeguen, in 1678, some young 
noblemen, the Prince de Conti, son of Anne Marie 
Martinozzi among them, went to serve as volunteers 
with the Austrians against the Turks, and Eugene 
joined them. Certain letters addressed by one of their 
number to a friend at Court, in which his Majesty was 
referred to in far from respectful terms, 1 were brought 
to the notice of the King, who sent a peremptory order 
to the party to return. Eugene, however, declined to 
obey, and sent word that he had decided to renounce 
France and enter the service of the Emperor. " Ne 
trouvez-vous pas que faie fait la une grande perte ? " 
observed Louis, with a contemptuous smile, to those 
about him, when he received the news. Little did he 
suspect how bitterly he would live to regret his con- 
temptuous rejection of a sword which, had it been on 
his side, instead of against him, might have enabled 
him to remain the arbiter of Europe to the end of his 
life ! But the subsequent career of Eugene de Savoie 
is too well known to need recapitulation here. 

1 One of these letters contained the following passage : " Quand il 
[Louis XIV] faut representer, c'est un roi de theatre ; quand il faut 
combattre, c'est un roi d'echecs." 



CHAPTER XX 

Madame de Soissons leaves Brussels and takes up her residence in Madrid 
— Her relations with her sister Marie — Her intimacy with the Queen 
— Antipathy of Carlos II to her — Correspondence between the 
Comte de Rebenac, French Ambassador in Madrid, and Louis XIV 
in regard to the countess — Carlos II convinced that Madame de 
Soissons has bewitched both him and the Queen — He is warned that 
it is intended to poison the latter — Sudden death of Marie Louise 
— Suspicions of poisoning — Letter of Rebenac to Louis XIV — 
Opinions of other contemporaries — Saint-Simon accuses Madame de 
Soissons of having poisoned the Queen in a glass of milk — Considera- 
tion of this charge — The countess is ordered to leave Madrid, and 
goes to Portugal — She returns to Brussels — Her later years and death. 

A FTER spending some time in Flanders, the Com- 
tesse de Soissons appears to have visited Hamburg 
and other parts of western Germany ; but eventually 
returned to Brussels, where she remained until the 
spring of 1686. She made great efforts to obtain per- 
mission to return to France ; but Louvois had treated 
her too badly to lend himself to her recall ; while 
Madame de Maintenon was hardly more favourably 
disposed towards her than Madame de Montespan had 
been ; and so she remained in exile. Early in 1686, 
she determined to leave Brussels and take up her resi- 
dence in Madrid, and in March embarked for Spain. 
Her reasons for this step are somewhat doubtful ; but, 
since, during her residence in Flanders, she had estab- 
lished friendly relations with several noble Spanish 
families, it was the general belief that her object was to 

380 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 381 

arrange an advantageous marriage for Eugene, who 
accompanied her, and for whom she obtained the rank 
of a grandee of Spain. 

The Constabless Colonna, who soon after the 
countess's arrival regained her liberty, expressed at 
first great pleasure at seeing her sister, and there was 
some talk of their living together in the same house. 
But the unpleasant side of Olympe's character soon 
began to assert itself, and Marie, discovering that she 
was engaged in political intrigues, and frequented the 
society of several persons of whom she strongly dis- 
approved, went to live in a house adjoining a convent, 
and communicating with it by means of a private 
entrance, which permitted her to retire thither when- 
ever she felt disposed. 

Madame de Soissons, however, was well received by 
the Queen, with whom she had been on intimate terms 
previous to the latter's marriage, and neglected nothing 
to ingratiate herself with her Majesty. She succeeded, 
for Marie Louise clung to everything which reminded 
her of the France which she had never ceased to regret, 
though the superstitious Carlos II, who strongly dis- 
approved of the intimacy between his beloved consort 
and a lady who had been the associate of sorceresses, 
did everything possible to combat the Queen's inclina- 
tion for the countess. 

Two years passed, and then Madame de Soissons 
found herself threatened with expulsion from Spain. 
Under date 7 October 1688, the Comte de Rebenac, the 
French Ambassador at Madrid, writes to Louis XIV : — 

" The Comtesse de Soissons has been the cause dur- 
ing the last fortnight of an intrigue of considerable 
importance at this Court. The King of Spain was 
warned against her ; he accused her of sorcery, and I 



382 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

learn that, some days ago, he conceived the idea that, 
had it not been for a spell which she had cast over him, 
he would have had children. This idea, Sire, troubled 
him extremely, and he made a brawl which had taken 
place between the Spaniards and Madame de Soissons's 
servants the pretext of intimating to her, through the 
Constabless Colonna, that it would be well for her to 
retire to Flanders, where she would be given the enr 
joyment of the estate of Terveuren for life. She did 
not wish to defer to this counsel, and it was believed 
that the taking of Belgrade, the first news of which has 
been brought here by a gentleman of the Chevalier de 
Savoie, will cause some change in this order. Never- 
theless, the Marques de los Balbases was charged to 
confirm it. Upon that, she went to find the Queen, 
having no doubt that she would be able to persuade her 
to espouse her cause ; but that princess counselled her, 
on the contrary, to accommodate herself to the wish of 
the King." 1 

The countess, however, found two powerful allies in 
the Graf von Mansfeld, the Austrian Ambassador, and 
the Prime Minister, the Conde de Oropesa, a warm 
friend of Austria, whom, says Rebenac, she succeeded 
in persuading that the Queen had obtained the order 
for her expulsion at the instance of Louis XIV, and 
through their intercession she was permitted to remain 
in Madrid. 

From the correspondence between the Comte de 
Rebenac and Louis XIV, it is evident that both re- 
garded the presence of Madame de Soissons in Madrid 
with the gravest suspicion. At the time of which we 
are speaking, the Court of Spain was divided into two 

1 "Archives des Affaires Etrarigeres," published by Amedee Renee, 
" Les Nieces de Mazarin." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 383 

factions, the French and the Austrian ; and the young 
Queen, who had gained a great ascendency over her 
feeble husband, was striving her utmost to detach him 
from the league formed on all sides against Louis XIV. 
Her task was a difficult one ; she had against her the 
Queen-Mother, Mansfeld, the Prime Minister, and the 
majority of the Council ; and Louis XIV did not doubt 
that the Comtesse de Soissons, burning with resentment 
as she must be against France and its King, and on 
intimate terms with the Ambassador of the Emperor 
and the head of the Austrian party in the Council, 
would do all in her power to persuade Marie Louise of 
the hopelessness of her efforts on his behalf. The 
Comte de Rebenac received instructions to keep the 
closest watch upon the actions of the countess, and to 
do everything possible to checkmate her influence, and 
here is the picture which he gives of her life in Madrid — 
a cruel contrast indeed to the salon of the Hotel de 
Soissons of other days : — 

" The life of the Comtesse de Soissons consists in 
receiving at her house all persons who desire to come 
there from four o'clock in the evening up to two or 
three hours after midnight. She keeps a table of from 
ten to twelve covers, of which five or six are taken 
possession of by as many professional gormandizers 
\goinfres\ who come there every evening without fail, 
neither play nor talk, and do nothing but stuff them- 
selves with food, there being no nation so sober as 
the Spanish at home nor so gluttonous ; it is a thing 
one experiences every day in this country. The rest of 
the company is formed of a score of persons of no con- 
sideration, who conduct themselves with so little respect 
that they enter, their hair tied behind, their bucklers 
on their arms, and wearing their long swords and 



384 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

poniards. There is, Sire, everything which can convey 
an air of familiarity and contempt for the house of a 
woman of quality. Moreover, no great nobleman 
appears there, or very seldom. 

"Your Majesty will have the goodness to pardon 
these details. I only give them because I believe it to 
be my duty to him to furnish an exact account of the 
manner in which the Comtesse de Soissons lives here. . . . 
It is, moreover, certain that the Comtesse de Soissons's 
intelligence, if she wishes to use it, would enable her to 
ascertain many things which one could not discover 
oneself. I shall observe her very closely, and will do 
my utmost to oppose the confidence which the Queen 
of Spain might perhaps one day repose in her again." 1 

To this letter the King replied : — 

" I approve the resolution that you have arrived at 
not to hold any communication with the Comtesse de 
Soissons. It would certainly appear that the manner in 
which she conducts herself will not give her much 
influence in the place where you are, and that will do 
more to compel her to withdraw than all that you can 
do to send her away. Endeavour, notwithstanding, to 
keep yourself always well informed of her intrigues, 

1 Rebenac to Louis XIV, 7 October 1688. In the same despatch, 
the Ambassador refers to Marie in these terms : " As for the Constabless, 
she is here in a little convent, which she leaves whenever she feels disposed. 
She does not meddle in any intrigues ; she has many influential friends, 
and, although she has not quarrelled with her sister, the Comtesse de 
Soissons, no one was so much rejoiced as was she at the order that had 
been given the latter to withdraw." 

In subsequent despatches, the Ambassador speaks frequently to the 
King of a " person " devoted to the interests of France, whom he often 
consults, but whose name he does not mention. And, in one dated 
16 January 1689, he states that he has given a portrait of the King set 
with diamonds " to the person for whom your Majesty intended it," and 
that it has been received "with respect and gratitude." In the opinion of 
Lucien Perey, there can be no question that this mysterious person was the 
Constabless Colonna. 




From a contemporary print 

OLYMPE MANCINI, COMTESSE DE SOISSONS 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 385 

in order to give on this subject to the Queen the 
counsel most conformable to her interests." l 

The resentment which Marie Louise's refusal to 
intercede for her with Carlos II had occasioned Madame 
de Soissons did not last long, and, on 22 October, 
Rebenac informs Louis XIV that the " Comtesse de 
Soissons is reconciled to the Queen, and has expressed 
her great regret for having unjustly accused her of 
having had any share in the events which have recently 
taken place." 

Although Carlos II had allowed himself to be pre- 
vailed upon to withdraw his order to Madame de 
Soissons, he remained convinced that the countess was 
a sorceress of a peculiarly dangerous type, and that the 
non-arrival of the long-awaited heir to his throne was 
due to a spell which she had cast over his consort and 
himself. All his efforts were now directed to the 
raising of this supposed charm, and after pilgrimages to 
various shrines and other religious exercises recom- 
mended in such cases had proved of no avail, he had 
recourse to the services of a Dominican monk, who 
professed to have the power of exorcising evil spirits. 
" The ceremony was horrible," writes Rebenac to 
Louis XIV, after many apologies for shocking his 
Majesty's modesty, " car, Sire, le roy et la reyne devoient 
estre dhhabilUs tout nuds." On its conclusion, it appeared 
that the physicians of the Court were called in, and 
the unfortunate Queen had to submit to a medical 
examination, in the presence of the monk, " in order 
to discover if the charm had been removed." The 
Ambassador expresses the opinion that this affair had 
been concerted by the Prime Minister, the Conde de 
Oropesa, and the Austrian faction, with the object of 
1 Letter of 23 October 1688. 



386 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

persuading his Majesty that the Queen had been be- 
witched previous to her marriage, and obtaining its 
dissolution. 1 

But alas ! a far worse fate than sterility was in store 
for poor Marie Louise. For some time past, Carlos II 
had received repeated warnings that it was intended to 
poison the Queen, and, if Madame de la Fayette 
is to be believed, Marie Louise herself was convinced 
that such would be her fate, and had written to that 
effect to Monsieur, who sent her an antidote. The 
antidote, however, arrived too late. On 9 February 
the Queen was taken suddenly ill, and three days later, 
in spite of all the efforts of her physicians, she expired. 

Her death gave rise to the same terrible suspicions as 
had that of her mother, the ill-fated Henrietta of 
England, nineteen years before; but whereas the 
latter's end is now generally believed to have been 
due to natural causes, 2 Marie Louise's is capable of no 
such explanation, and the belief that she was a victim of 
her private or, more probably, her political enemies — 
the latter had certainly strong reasons for desiring her 
removal — is the opinion of nearly all the best-informed 
of her contemporaries. Let us listen, however, to the 
account of the affair sent by Rebenac to Louis XIV : 

"The courier bears to your Majesty the most sad 
and deplorable of all news. The Queen of Spain has 
just expired, after three days of colic and continual 
vomiting. God alone, Sire, knows the cause of so 
tragical an event. Your Majesty will have been made 
aware, by several of my letters, of the sad forebodings 
I entertained in regard to it. 

1 Despatch of 23 December 1688. 

2 See on this question M. Funck-Brentano's admirable study in his 
'? Drames des Poisons." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 387 

" 1 saw the Queen some hours before her death. 
The King, her husband, had twice refused me this 
favour ; she asked for me herself with so much insist- 
ence that they permitted me to enter. I found, Sire, 
that she had all the signs of death ; she recognised 
them and was not affrighted. She was like a saint as 
regards God, and like a hero as regards the world. 
She commanded me to assure you that she was, in 
dying, as she had been throughout her life, the most 
faithful friend and servant that your Majesty could 
have." 

According to the Ambassador, the conduct of the 
Queen's chief physician, Francini, was highly suspicious. 
" Since the death," he continues, " he has avoided me, 
and I have not seen him till the third day, although I 
had sent several times to seek him. I know further 
that he told one of his friends that it was true that at 
the autopsy, and during the progress of the malady, he 
had remarked extraordinary symptoms ; but that he 
would lose his life if he spoke of them. 

" The public is at present persuaded that she was 
poisoned, and has no doubt about it ; but the malignity 
of this people is such that many persons view it with 
approbation, because they say the Queen had no children, 
and they regard the crime as a coup cTEtat which has their 
approval. 

" I demanded to be present at the autopsy, or at least 
that they would permit me to send physicians and sur- 
geons to attend it ; but I was refused. . . . When I 
saw that the Queen was in the last extremity, I left the 
surgeons and other persons at the doors of her apart- 
ment, in order that they might take advantage of the 
confusion which ordinarily prevails on occasions of this 
kind, to enter and see if there were any sign on the 



388 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

countenance of the Queen ; but every precaution was 
taken to prevent any one from entering. . . . 

" People coming from Portugal encountered a number 
of couriers on the way before even the Queen was 
believed to be in any danger ; this circumstance would 
indicate communications between the Conde de Oropesa 
and Portugal. 

"At the commencement of the malady there was a 
great effort made to circulate reports that the Queen 
had sustained a fall from horseback and had ruptured 
a vein in the body ; and that she had partaken of a 
prodigious quantity of oysters, lemons, and iced milk ; 
and a number of the same people were very busy in 
circulating these rumours. However, I have made 
inquiries and found them false. It is not true that she 
sustained a fall from horseback, or that she partook of 
anything unusual. And it is true, Sire, that she died 
in a very horrible manner." 

Rebenac goes on to inform the King that he strongly 
suspects the Prime Minister, Oropesa, and Don Eman- 
uel de Lira, another leader of the Austrian faction, as 
the authors of the crime, and that the Queen-Mother 
was privy to it. "The Duquesa d' Albuquerque, lady- 
of-honour to the Queen," he writes, " has behaved in so 
suspicious a manner and testified such joy, at the 
moment even of the Queen's death, that I cannot but 
regard her with horror ; and she is the devoted creature 
of the Queen-Mother. 1 

Louville, who succeeded Rebenac as French Ambas- 

1 If we are to believe Dangeau, the most reliable, if the dullest, of all 
contemporary choniclers, Louis XIV seems to have been firmly convinced 
that his niece had died from the effects of posion. "The King said at 
supper : ' The Queen of Spain has been poisoned, in an eel-pie, and the 
Comtesse de Pernitz and the maids-of-honour, Zapada and Nina, who 
partook of it after her, are dead of the same poison.' " 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 389 

sador at Madrid two months later, is of the same 
opinion, as are the Princess Palatine, Monsieur s second 
wife, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, and Madame de la 
Fayette, one of the most intimate friends of the family. 
But neither Rebenac nor any of the writers mentioned 
say a single word to inculpate Madame de Soissons ; 
and it was left to Saint-Simon, who went as Ambassador 
to Madrid thirty years later, to attribute the supposed 
crime to the countess, and here is, in brief, what he says : 
"The Comte de Mansfeld was the Ambassador of 
the Emperor at Madrid, and the Comtesse de Soissons 
was on intimate terms with him from the moment of 
her arrival. The Queen, who longed only for France, 
had a great desire to see the Comtesse de Soissons. 
The King of Spain, who had heard her talked about, and 
who, for some time past, had been the recipient of 
numberless warnings that it was intended to poison the 
Queen, raised every conceivable objection before con- 
senting to it. It appears that in the end the countess 
came occasionally after dinner to the Queen's apartments, 
by a secret staircase, and saw her only in the King's 
presence. These visits redoubled, and always with 
repugnance on the part of the King. He had asked of 
the Queen, as a favour, never to taste anything that 
he had not eaten or drunk first, because he was well 
aware that it was intended to poison her. The weather 
was hot ; milk is scarce in Madrid. The Queen ex- 
pressed a desire for some, and the countess, who had 
gradually usurped brief tete-a-tetes with her, boasted of 
some that was excellent, which she promised to bring her 
in a glass. It is asserted that it was prepared at the 
Comte de Mansfeld's house. The Comtesse de Soissons 
brought it to the Queen, who swallowed it at a draught, 
and died shortly afterwards." 



39o FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

Saint-Simon adds that the countess, for whose flight 
preparations had been made, quitted the palace the 
moment the Queen had drunk the milk, and succeeded 
in effecting her escape from Spain. 

Now, what reliance are we to place in this accusation 
of Saint-Simon ? We are inclined to think little or 
none. If any real suspicion had attached to the 
countess, we should certainly find mention of it in 
the despatches of Rebenac or in the memoirs of the 
chroniclers we have spoken of : all persons in a position 
to learn all that was to be learned about the tragedy. 
Moreover, the fact is now well established that Saint- 
Simon never hesitated to impute all kinds of crimes to 
those whom he disliked on the flimsiest of evidence, 
and not infrequently, we suspect, without evidence at 
all, and that his memoirs teem with the grossest in- 
accuracies. 

And what had the countess to gain by such a crime ? 
It may be argued that the death of the Queen would be 
a severe blow to French interests at Madrid, and would 
thus avenge her disgrace. That is true ; but it is by 
no means certain that Olympe had abandoned all hope 
of returning to France, and in the support of Marie 
Louise lay her best, almost her only, chance of being 
recalled. As for the supposition that she rendered this 
service to Austria in order to further the interests 
of her son Eugene, that merits scant consideration. 
Eugene's reputation was already too firmly established 
to stand in need of any such aid. 

However that may be, one part of Saint-Simon's 
narrative is entirely false. Madame de Soissons did 
not, as he avers, fly from Spain before even the Queen's 
death. She remained in Madrid until the following 
May, when she received orders to depart within a week, 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 391 

and went to Portugal, where she remained for a year. 
That such an order implied a belief on the part of 
Carlos II that the countess had been in some way con- 
cerned in his wife's death is quite conceivable, though, 
if such were the case, it is strange that no objection 
should subsequently have been raised to her return to 
Flanders ; but it is more likely to have proceeded from 
his dread of her powers as a sorceress. 

From Portugal Olympe seems to have gone to 
Germany ; but, two years later, we find her again in 
Brussels, where she resumed the life which she had 
lived during her former residence in that city, visiting 
and receiving all the most notable residents and dis- 
tinguished foreigners, like the Elector of Bavaria, whose 
intimacy with her is in itself a repudiation of Saint- 
Simon's accusation. Of her later years, however, we 
know very little. Saint-Simon declares that all the 
French of distinction who visited the city were strictly 
forbidden to visit her ; but, if such were the case, it is 
somewhat singular to find the Marechal de Villeroi call- 
ing upon her and presenting his son, and the sister 
of Madame de Coulanges inviting her to supper. 1 The 
same veracious chronicler further declares that her 
famous son Eugene only visited her on one occasion, 
and that she died " in a species of opprobrium." But 
let us listen to a Brussels journal of the time, Les 
Relations veritables: — 

" Brussels, I o July 1 690. 

"At noon of the same day (6 July), the Prince 
Eugene de Savoie, accompanied by Major - General 
Cadogan and travelling post, passed by this town on his 
way to the camp of Assche, where he held a council of 

1 " Lettres de Madame de Coulanges." 



392 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

war with the Prince and the Duke of Marlborough ; 
and the 7th, about five o'clock in the evening, he came 
to this town and alighted at the house of her Highness 
the Comtesse de Soissons, his mother, where he received 
the compliments of the Ministers and the nobles, and 
left again the following morning for the army." 

Three months later, the same journal announces the 
death of the countess. 

" Brussels, 7 October 1690. 

"Tuesday morning, the 9th of this month, her 
Highness the Comtesse-dowager de Soissons died in 
this town, after an illness of some weeks : her good 
qualities, her virtues, and especially her charity towards 
the poor, render her worthy of praise and cause her to 
be regretted by all the world." 1 

Of the seven nieces of Mazarin, Olympe was the 
one who most nearly resembled him. She resembled 
him in her ambition, in her ostentation, in her un- 
scrupulousness, and in her love of intrigue ; but she 
had none of his discretion, none of his foresight, and 
she was vindictive, which the Cardinal certainly was 
not. Hence she failed, and spent the last years of her 
life in well-merited exile. 

1 Cited by Amedee Renee, " Les Nieces de Mazarin." 



CHAPTER XXI 

The Duchesse de Mazarin leaves Savoy and takes up her residence in 
England — Her reception by Charles II — He makes her a pension, 
and gives her apartments in St. James's Palace — His answer to 
her husband's representations — Saint-Evremond's account of her life 
in England — His devotion to her — His description of her charms — 
She frequents the society of wits and men of letters — Fatal duel 
between her nephew, the Chevalier de Soissons, and her lover, the 
Baron de Banier — Her despair — She resolves to enter a convent in 
Madrid, but is dissuaded by Saint-Evremond — Her passion for 
bassette — Remonstrances of Saint-Evremond — Visit of the Duchesse 
de Bouillon to England — The Revolution of 1688 occurs during her 
visit — She is sent back to France in William of Orange's yacht — 
Hortense's pension reduced by the new King — Her last years— She 
dies at Chelsea in July 1699 — Saint-Evremond's eulogy of her — M. de 
Mazarin's treatment of her remains — Her children — Visit of the 
Duchesse de Bouillon to Rome — Her quarrel with the Duchess of 
Hanover — Saint-Simon's opinion of her — Her sons. 

TN recounting the adventures of her three sisters, we 
have somewhat neglected Hortense, whom we last 
saw, in February 1674, making a diplomatic pilgrimage 
to the shrine of Saint-Francois de Sales, to avoid the 
compromising visit of her sister Marie. After the 
departure of the Constabless for Flanders, Charles 
Emmanuel would appear to have sought consolation 
for his loss in frequent visits to Chambery, which 
aroused the jealousy and resentment of the Duchess of 
Savoy, so complacent where the elder sister had been 
concerned. The result was that soon after the Duke's 
death, in the summer of 1675, Madame de Mazarin 

393 



394 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

received an intimation from his widow that she must 
look elsewhere for an asylum. Hortense, accordingly, 
quitted Chambery, travelled through Switzerland, Ger- 
many, and Holland " on horseback, and wearing a 
plumed hat and a peruke," according to her former 
ally the Marquis de Courcelles, and reached Amsterdam, 
where she embarked for England. 

It has been pretended that this journey had apolitical 
end. Louise de Keroualles, Duchess of Portsmouth, 
was at this time in possession of the lion's share of 
Charles II's heart, and using all her influence to keep 
that estimable monarch in the path marked out for him 
by his paymaster at Versailles ; and the leaders of the 
country-party are supposed to have invited the woman 
whom rumour credited with being the most beautiful of 
her time to England, in order to oppose her to the 
reigning siren. It would, however, appear more prob- 
able that the fact that the Duchess of York was her 
cousin, 1 and that she was, in consequence, sure of a 
welcome at Whitehall, had been Hortense's principal 
reason for choosing England. 

However that may be, Charles II received the duchess 
with open arms — in the literal as well as the figurative 
sense of the expression — installed her at once as one of 
his subordinate sultanas, and gave her a pension of 
^4000, while Waller hastened to chant her praises : 

" When through the world fair Mazarine had run, 
Bright as her fellow-traveller, the sun ; 
Hither at length the Roman eagle flies, 
As the last triumph of her conquering eyes." 

Soon the star of Louise de Keroualles began to pale 
before the " conquering eyes " of the beautiful exile, 

1 Marie Beatrix d'Este, daughter of the Duke of Modena and Laure 
Martinozzi. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 395 

and the joy of her enemies, private and political, knew 
no bounds, when, on a sudden, the capricious Hortense 
dashed all their hopes by transferring her affections to 
the Prince de Monaco, one of her friends of Savoy. 
The King, in high dudgeon, stopped the pension and 
treated the lady with marked coldness ; but his anger 
did not last long, and, after a few weeks, he not only 
restored the pension, but gave her apartments in St. 
James's Palace. The Due de Mazarin, highly indignant 
at his Majesty's generosity, and evidently under the 
impression that the pension was in the form of a loan 
for which he himself might be made responsible, 
despatched an emissary to England to represent to the 
King that his wife's receipts were valueless, to which 
Charles replied, laughing, that it was a matter which 
troubled him not at all, since he never took any. 1 He 
remained the duchess's friend, and perhaps an inter- 
mittent lover, to the end of his life ; and John Evelyn 
relates that he saw him " toying with her " at White- 
hall, only a week before his death. 2 

In her apartments at St. James's, Hortense led a very 
agreeable existence, and " found herself surrounded by 
all the noblest and most witty persons whom England 
possessed." One of the habitues of this little Court, 
Saint-Evremond, has left us the following picture of it : 

1 " CEuvres de Saint-Evremond," vol. V. 

2 "Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn," vol. II, 210: "I 
can never forget the expressible luxury and profaneness, gaming, and all 
dissoluteness, and, as it were, total forgctfulness of God, which this day 
se'nnight I was witness of: the King sitting and toying with his concu- 
bines, Portsmouth, Cleveland, Mazarin, etc., a French boy singing love 
songs, in that glorious gallery, while about twenty of the great courtiers 
and other dissolute persons were at Basset, round a large table, a bank, of 
at least two hundred in gold before them ; upon which two gentlemen who 
were with me made reflections with astonishment. Six days after, all was 
in the duet." 



396 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

" Freedom and discretion are equally to be found there. 
Every one is made more at home than in his own house, 
and treated with more respect than at Court. It is true 
that there are frequent disputes there, but they are those 
of knowledge, not of anger. There is play there, but 
it is inconsiderable and only practised for the sake of 
amusement. You discover in no countenance the fear 
of losing, nor concern for what is lost. Play is followed 
by the most excellent repasts in the world. There you 
will find whatever delicacy is brought from France and 
whatever is curious from the Indies. Even the com- 
monest meals have the rarest relish imparted to them. 
There is neither a plenty which gives a notion of ex- 
travagance, nor a frugality that discovers penury or 
meanness." 

Saint-Evremond, banished from the Court of France, 
had been living some fourteen years in England when 
Madame de Mazarin came to reside there. His 
admiration for the beautiful duchess was boundless, 1 
though it would appear to have been of the platonic 
order, such as Chateaubriand cherished for Madame 
Recamier. He visited her every day, became her poet, 
her advocate, and her secretary, and remained to the 
end of her life her most devout worshipper. It is in 
his writings that we must seek for details of Madame 
de Mazarin's life in England ; but his devotion rendered 

1 Saint-Evremond has left a description of the duchess's charms, 
which sounds almost fabulous : 

" She is one of those Roman beauties who in no way resemble your 
dolls of France . . . the colour of her eyes has no name ; it is neither 
blue, nor grey, nor altogether black, but a combination of all the three ; 
they have the sweetness of blue, the gaiety of grey, and, above all, the 
fire of the black . . . there are none in the world so sweet . . . there 
are none in the world so serious and so grave when her thoughts are 
occupied with any serious subject . . . they are large, well-set, full of fire 
and intelligence ... all the movements of her mouth are full of charm, 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 397 

him so blind to her failings that it is as well to accept 
some of his statements concerning her with considerable 
reserve. 1 

Among Hortense's other friends were Charles, Lord 
Buckhurst, afterwards Earl of Dorset, poet, philan- 
thropist, and v/it, the most malicious of writers, and the 
most kind-hearted of men, of whom Rochester cleverly 

coin " 

For pointed satire I would Buckhurst chuse, 
The best good man with the worst natured muse. 

Dr. Vossius, canon of Windsor ; the Protestant refugee, 
Justel ; Saint-Real, whom she had first met in Savoy 
and in collaboration with whom she wrote her memoirs, 
and the poet Waller. 

It will thus be seen that the duchess had begun to 
form a decided taste for intellectual pleasures ; but this 
did not prevent her from indulging in numerous gallan- 
tries, one of which had a most tragic termination. Some 
years after her arrival in England, she was visited by her 
nephew, the Chevalier de Soissons, Olympe's youngest 
son. The chevalier " breathed the contagious air of 
the house," and conceived for his aunt, who, though 

and the strangest grimaces become her wonderfully, when she imitates 
those who make them. Her smiles would soften the hardest heart and 
ease the most profound depression of mind ; they almost entirely change 
her expression, which is naturally haughty, and spread over it a certain 
tincture of sweetness and kindness, which reassures those hearts whom her 
charms have alarmed. Her nose, which without doubt is incomparably 
well-turned and perfectly proportioned, gives a noble and lofty air to her 
whole physiognomy. The tone of her voice is so harmonious and agree- 
able that none can hear her speak without being sensibly moved. Her 
complexion is so delicately clear that I cannot believe that anyone who 
examined it closely can deny it to be whiter than the driven snow. Her 
hair is of a glossy black, with nothing harsh about it. To see how 
naturally it curls as soon as it is let loose, one would say it rejoiced to 
shade so lovely a head ; she has the finest turned countenance that a 
painter ever imagined." 

1 As, for example, when he writes that " with the beauty of ancient 
Greece, Madame de Mazarin combined the virtue of ancient Rome." 



398 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

approaching her fortieth year and already a grandmother, 
was still almost as beautiful as ever, a most violent 
passion. Hortense, however, repulsed him with horror, 
her heart being fully occupied by a fascinating Swedish 
nobleman, the Baron de Banier, son of the general of 
that name who had distinguished himself under 
Gustavus Adolphus. Transported with jealousy, the 
Chevalier challenged the baron to a duel, and wounded 
him so severely that he died a few days later. 

This affair caused a terrible scandal, and M. de Sois- 
sons was arrested and had to stand his trial for man- 
slaughter. 1 Poor Hortense was in despair ; she denied 
herself to nearly all her friends, draped her rooms in 
black, and spoke of withdrawing to Spain and join- 
ing Marie in her convent. Saint-Evremond sought to 
dissuade her. " When the ugly and the imbecile," 
wrote he to her, " throw themselves into convents, it is 
a divine inspiration which causes them to quit a world 
where they only appear to disgrace the authors of their 
being. On your part, Madame, it is a veritable tempta- 
tion of the devil. 

"... Perhaps you hope to find consolation in con- 
versing with the Constabless ; but, if I am not mistaken, 
that consolation will soon come to an end. After 
having talked for three or four days about France and 
Italy ; after having spoken of the passion of the King 
(i.e. Louis XlV's passion for Marie), and the timidity of 
your uncle (Mazarin), of that which you intended to be 
and that which you have become ; after having exhausted 
the recollections of your stay in the Constabless's house, 
of your departure from Rome, and of the ill success of 
your journeys, you will find yourself shut up in a con- 

1 " I could not have believed," wrote Madame de Sevigne, " that the 
eyes of a grandmother could work such havoc." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 399 

vent. There you will experience all the hardships of the 
nuns, and will not find that Spouse which consoles them. 
All spouses are odious to you, whether in a convent or 
in the world. ..." 

Hortense's desire for a conventual, life did not last 
long, and was replaced by a violent passion for play, and 
in particular for the fascinating game of bassette. A 
certain professional gamester named Morin, compelled 
to fly from France, established himself in London, and 
succeeded in insinuating himself into the duchess's 
apartments at St. James's, where the game quickly became 
the rage. Having no longer any thought in her pretty 
head but bassette, Hortense neglected the pleasures of 
the mind and the wits and men of letters who had 
formerly found so warm a welcome there, to the great 
sorrow of Saint-Evremond, who took upon himself to 
remonstrate with her in the following verses : — 

"Qui sert a ces messieurs leur illustre science ? 
A peine leur fait-on la simple reverence 
Et les pauvres savants, interdits et confus, 
Regardent Mazarin, qui ne les connait plus. 

Hortense joue a la bassette, 
Aussi longtemps que veut Morin, 
Vous veillez jusqu'au lendemain ; 
Plus de l'opera, plus de musique 
De morale, de politique. . . . 

Beau yeux, quel est votre destin ! 
Perirez-vous, beau yeux, a regarder Morin ? " 

In July 1687, the Duchesse de Bouillon came to 
England on a visit to her sister. Marianne had fallen 
into fresh disgrace with the King, for what cause is un- 
certain, and Paris and the Court had been interdicted 
her. The duchess had always been fond of play, but 
she was fonder still of intellectual pleasures, and with 



4 oo FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

her arrival Hortense's apartments at St. James's became 
once more the rendezvous of wits and men of letters. 

Madame de Bouillon's visit was made the occasion of 
a kind of joust, between Marianne's favourite poet, La 
Fontaine, and the old and witty cavalier of Madame de 
Mazarin ; but each was magnanimous enough to chant 
the praises of his rival's idol as well as those of his own ; 
and it was now that La Fontaine wrote those charming 
verses, the first lines of which we have already had 
occasion to quote : 

" Hortense eut du ciel en partage 
La grace, la beaute, l'esprit, ce n'est pas tout : 
Les qualites du cceur ; ce n'est pas tout encore : 
Pour mille autres appas le monde entier 1'adore 
Depuis l'un jusqu'a l'autre bout. 
L'Angleterre en ce point le dispute a la France, 
Votre heroine rend nos deux peuples rivaux." 

In praising the esprit of Hortense, La Fontaine was 
not, as some may suppose, merely availing himself of 
the licence enjoyed by poets of all ages of attributing 
all manner of moral as well as physical perfections to 
the ladies in whose honour they tuned their lyres. 
The duchess, though in her youth frivolous and giddy, 
was never an insipid beauty. She had all the quick 
intelligence of her family, and, though her life with 
M. de Mazarin was hardly calculated to develop her 
faculties, the society she met at Rome, that of Saint- 
Real in Savoy, and later the friends whom she drew 
around her in London, all exercised a beneficial influence 
upon her mind. Bayle, who, though he never himself 
was under her spell, was well acquainted with several of 
those who were, declared that " there were surprising 
charms in her mind and manners, that she loved study, 
and took pleasure in the conversation of learned men : " 1 

1 Cited by Amedee Renee, " Les Nieces de Mazarin." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 401 

The Revolution of 1688 surprised the two sisters in 
England, and Madame de Bouillon found herself the 
prisoner of William of Orange. It was at first believed 
that he would not allow her to depart, but the austere 
Dutchman treated her with the greatest courtesy, and 
gave orders for her to be conveyed to France in his own 
yacht. Hortense, as the relative of James II's queen, 
naturally found herself regarded with suspicion by the 
triumphant party, which demanded her expulsion. 
However, her friends were sufficiently influential to 
interest the new king in her favour, and not only to 
obtain for her permission to remain in England, but 
also a new pension ; for the one which she had received 
from Charles II, and which had been continued by his 
brother, had, of course, ceased with the fallen dynasty. 
However, William III, being neither a lover nor a 
relative by marriage, did not feel himself justified in 
allowing the lady more than half the sum which she had 
hitherto been receiving, and although Hortense suc- 
ceeded in continuing to the end the appearance of a 
princely existence, it was only by the aid of confiding 
tradesmen. At length, however, some of her creditors 
became so pressing that she was forced to appeal for 
assistance to M. de Mazarin, who, while piously dis- 
sipating her millions, left her unprovided for. The 
duke declined to assist her, and advised her to become 
bankrupt, a step which, said he, she might quite legiti- 
mately take, since her creditors were all heretics. He, 
however, magnanimously invited her to return to the 
conjugal domicile where she had passed so many un- 
happy days ; but Hortense invariably replied with the 
old battle-cry of the Fronde : Point de Mazarin ! Point 
de Mazarin ! 

During the last years of her life, she seems to have 



402 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

become rather too much addicted to the pleasures of 
the table, particularly in the matter of wine ; and the 
rhyming epistles which Saint-Evremond addressed to 
her contain certain counsels of temperance which are for 
us distinctly unpleasing revelations. 

" Beaute des models cherie, 
Et de moi plus que ma vie ! 
Moins d'eaux fortes, de vins blancs 
Vous irez jusqu'a cent ans. 

Mais que le ciel vous envoie 
Double rate et double foie, 
L'eau de Madame Huet 
Vous les sechera tout net 
Contre eau d'anis, eau d'absinthe 
Qti on boit en tasse de plnte 
Vos poumons ne tiendront pas 

Et votre coeur doux et tendre, 
Qu'ont fait les dieux pour se rendre 
Au service des amants, 
Perira par vos vins blancs." 

These excesses no doubt hastened the duchess's end, 
and it would indeed have needed a constitution of iron 
to have long withstood " absinthe en tasse de pinte" and, 
in the spring of 1699, she fell seriously ill. Hoping 
that the air and repose of the country might afford her 
relief, she removed to a house which she had at Chelsea 
— then, of course, only a village — where she usually 
spent the summer, but she grew rapidly worse, and we 
hear of her as " living only on brandy." 1 Her son, the 
Due de la Meilleraye, and the Duchesse de Bouillon, 
who had been summoned at the beginning of her illness, 
arrived just before the end, which took place on 2 July 
1699, at the age of fifty-three. 

1 Letter of the Abbe Viguier to Monsieur dAubigny, cited by Amedee 
Renee. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 403 

The inconsolable Saint-Evremond wrote to a friend : 
"She had been the most beautiful woman in the world, 
and her beauty preserved its splendour up to the last 
moment of her life. She had been the greatest heiress 
in Europe, and magnificent, though poor, she had lived 
more honourably than the most opulent could do. Elle 
est mort serieusement, avec un indifference chretien pour la vie." 

The best, we think, that can be said for poor Hor- 
tense, is that she was the victim of circumstance. Married 
very young to a half-lunatic husband, and surrounded by 
all the temptations of a dissolute society, she would have 
needed more than the average share of moral stamina to 
have lived a life free from reproach, whereas she was by 
nature frivolous and self-willed, greedy for pleasure, and 
vain of admiration. She possessed, however, in a very 
marked degree the art of endearing herself to those with 
whom she came in contact, and in her friendships, as 
distinguished from her love-affairs, she appears to have 
been singularly faithful, which perhaps accounts for the 
extremely lenient judgment passed upon her by Madame 
de Sevigne and others of her contemporaries. 

In death, Hortense fell into the hands of the husband 
whose pursuit she had so successfully evaded during 
life. "M. de Mazarin," wrote Saint-Simon, "so long 
separated from her, caused her body to be brought back, 
and marched it about with him from place to place. 
On one occasion, he deposited it at Notre-Dame-de- 
Liesse, where the worthy inhabitants prayed to it as 
to a saint and touched it with their chaplets." 

Madame de Mazarin had four children ; a son Paul 
Jules, Due de Mazarin et de la Meilleraye (1687- 
1731), and three daughters, Marie Charlotte (1662- 
1729), married to the Marquis de Richelieu, who had 
carried her off; Marie Anne (1 663-1 720), who took 



4 o 4 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

the veil and became Abbess of Lys, where her aunt 
Marie had once been imprisoned, and Marie Olympe, 
born in 1665, who married the Marquis de Belle- 
fonds. 

Paul Jules had a son, Gui Paul Jules, Due de 
Mazarin et de la Meilleraye, on whose death, in 1738, 
the male branch of the family became extinct, and a 
daughter, Armande Felicite, who married Louis de 
Mailly, Marquis de Nesle, and became the mother of 
the four celebrated sisters, the Comtesse de Mailly, the 
Comtesse de Vintimille, the Duchesse de Lauraguais, and 
the Marquise de la Tournelle (better known under the 
title of Duchesse de Chateauroux), who were succes- 
sively the favourites of Louis XV. 

After her departure from England, Madame de 
Bouillon, to whom Paris and the Court were still for- 
bidden ground, took up her residence at the beautiful 
Chateau de Navarre, two leagues from Evreux, which 
her husband had constructed on the site of an old 
pleasure-house of Queen Jeanne of Navarre. 1 She 
did not, however, remain there long, as having had for 
some time a great desire to visit Italy, she set out from 
Rome to join her brother, the Due de Nevers. Here, 
they appear to have led a very festive kind of exist- 
ence, keeping open house and giving the most 
sumptuous entertainments. One of their favourite 
diversions was to parade the streets of the city, on 
moonlight nights, " in an open chariot, having with 
them the Signora Faustina, one of the most beautiful 
voices in Rome, and the instruments necessary to ac- 
company her." On one occasion, they made her sing 

1 It was to this chateau, which had been presented to her by 
Napoleon, that the Empress Josephine retired after her divorce in 18 10 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 405 

under the windows of the Spanish Ambassador, " who 
the moment Faustina had ceased, did not fail to respond 
from a balcony by the Signora Georgina, his mistress, 
whom he had carried off from the Duke of Mantua, 
who, having a voice not less beautiful than that of 
Faustina, had also partisans." This kind of competi- 
tion, the chronicler adds, continued for several nights 
and attracted a numerous company, " who formed them- 
selves into two rival factions, and raised shouts of s Viva 
Francia ! Viva Espano ! ' which could be heard in the 
most remote quarters of the city." 1 

The latter part of Madame de Bouillon's life was un- 
eventful, the only incident out of the common which is 
recorded of her being a violent dispute with the Duchess 
of Hanover over a question of precedence. The sequel 
to the quarrel was that, a few days later, when the 
German princess was on her way to the play, she was 
met by Madame de Bouillon and several of her relatives, 
at the head of a small army of retainers, v/ho fell upon 
the unfortunate foreigners and, having put them to 
flight, cut the traces of the horses and nearly demolished 
the coach. 

She died in 17 14, preserving, according to Saint- 
Simon, her beauty and charm to the last. " She was 
the Queen of Paris and of all places to which she was 
exiled ; husband, children, the whole Bouillon family, 
the Prince de Conti, the Due de Bourbon, who did not 
budge, while at Paris, from her house, all were more 
lowly than the grass before her. She only very rarely 
visited any one . . . and preserved an air of superiority 
over every one, which she knew how to apportion and to 
season with much skill according to the rank of those 
with whom she came in contact. Her house was open 

1 " Memoires de Coulanges." 



4 o6 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

from the morning . . . morning and evening she kept 
a splendid table ; high play went on there, and of all 
kinds at the same time. Never did woman occupy her- 
self less with her toilette ; never had beautiful and 
singular features like hers less need of the resources of 
art. She was intelligent, spoke well, argued freely, and 
always went to the heart of anything. Intelligence and 
beauty sustained her, and the world accustomed itself to 
be governed by her." l 

Madame de Bouillon had four sons, who all embraced 
the profession of arms, and the eldest, the Prince de 
Turenne, would have been celebrated, had not the 
memory of his achievements been unfortunately merged 
in that of the illustrious captain whose name he bore. 
In 1679, he accompanied the Prince de Conti and 
Eugene de Savoie to Hungary, and distinguished him- 
self at the battles of Grau and Neuhausel. Whether he 
was actually the author of the compromising letter we 
have spoken of elsewhere is uncertain ; but, any way, he 
had no sooner returned to France than he received a 
lettre de cachet ordering him to repass the frontier. He 
went to Venice and took service, as a volunteer, under 
the Republic, then disputing with the Turks possession 
of the Morea and Greece. His military talents, and 
still more his reckless courage, so delighted the Venetians 
that, on his return, the Republic presented him with a 
sword encrusted with diamonds, charged their Am- 
bassador in Paris to compliment his family, and offered 
him the rank of lieutenant-general. But the young 
prince, unlike his cousin Eugene, had no wish to re- 
nounce his country and preferred to remain a volunteer. 
Soon afterwards, he was permitted to return to France, 
but did not long survive his recall. 

1 " Memoires de Saint-Simon." 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 407 

The duchess's second son, the Due d'Albret, was 
Grand Chamberlain to the King and Governor of 
Auvergne ; a third was a Knight of Malta ; the youngest, 
a colonel-general of light cavalry, married the daughter 
of a wealthy financier, who was called by Madame de 
Bouillon, " her little ingot of gold." The family 
became extinct on the death of Godefroy Charles Henri 
de la Tour d'Auvergne, in 1791. 



CHAPTER XXII 

Death of the Constable Colonna — On his death-bed and in his will he 
asks pardon of his wife and recommends her to the care of their sons — 
Visit of Don Carlo Colonna to Madrid — Meeting between Marie and 
the Due de Nevers at Toulouse — The Constabless goes to Rome, but 
decides to return to Spain — On her way from Genoa to Marseilles, 
she is captured by a corsair — But is released by the Governor of 
Finale — Consideration which she enjoys at Madrid— Her intimacy 
with the new Queen, Maria Anna of Neuburg — She follows her to 
Toledo, on her banishmeut thither in January 1702 — Her interview 
with Philip V — She leaves Spain and visits various towns in the south 
of France — Receives permission to come to Paris, and goes to live at 
Passy — She declines Louis XIV's invitation to Court — Departure for 
Rome — Her last years — She dies at Pisa, in May 171 5 — Her epitaph. 

ARIE survived all her sisters, though, like theirs, 
her later years were comparatively uneventful. 
On 15 April 1689, tne Constable Colonna died at 
Rome. Since 1684, when he had had a serious illness, 
he had lived for the most part in retirement, and latterly 
had become very devout. Five priests assisted him in 
his last hours, and afterwards drew up and signed a 
Relatione of his repentance, evidently intended to cause 
people to forget the decidedly unedifying life which the 
prince had lived. On his death-bed, he expressed the 
tenderest sentiments towards his wife, and his regret 
for the harshness with which he had treated her, and 
summoning his eldest son, the Principe di Palliano, re- 
commended to his care and that of his brothers their 
" excellent mother." l In a codicil to his will, he 
" demanded pardon of his wife, and, for fear that appear- 

1 Lucien Perey, " Marie Mancini Colonna." 
408 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 409 

ances might leave to his children some resentment 
against their mother, he took the blame upon himself, 
and did not inspire them with anything for her, save 
respect, gratitude, and esteem." 1 

Marie received the news of her husband's death with 
the most profound grief. Always generous, she forgot 
her wrongs and reproached herself bitterly with having 
doubted his good faith when, three years before, he had 
begged her, for the last time, to return to him. She 
shut herself up in her house and refused to receive any 
one, save her sister-in-law, the Marquesa de los Balbases, 
until her youngest and favourite son, Don Carlo 
Colonna, who had taken Orders, arrived in Madrid, to 
acquaint her with particulars of his father's death and to 
bring her the Constable's betrothal ring, which he had 
bequeathed to her. 

Don Carlo endeavoured to persuade his mother to 
return with him to Rome and make her home there ; 
and he and his brothers, shortly afterwards, gave her a 
pension of 12,000 crowns, besides offering to place 
apartments in the Casa Colonna and in whichever of the 
numerous country-seats of the family she might prefer 
at her disposal. However, she elected to remain for 
the present in Madrid, and it was not until the end of 
the year 1691 that she set out for Rome. She travelled 
by way of Bayonne and Toulouse, Louis XIV having 
granted her a passport, notwithstanding the fact that 
France and Spain had been at war since the summer of 
1689 ; and at the latter town was met by her brother 
the Due de Nevers, whom she had not seen for eighteen 
years. The object of their meeting seems to have been 
to discuss the project of a marriage between Don Marao 
Colonna, Marie's second son, and the duke's eldest 

1 " (Eeuvres de Saint-Evrcmond." 



4 io FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

daughter, 1 who was then about fifteen years of age ; but 
the Duchesse'de Nevers and her relatives the Morte- 
marts were opposed to the young girl leaving France, and 
nothing came of their pourparlers. The Constabless then 
continued her journey to Rome, where, however, she only 
remained until May 1692, when she decided to return 
to Madrid. Nor is this decision a matter of surprise. 
Her long residence in the Spanish capital had accustomed 
her to the ways of the country, and enabled her to speak 
the language fluently, while she had many influential 
friends and was in high favour at Court. On the other 
hand, she had always entertained a strong distaste for 
the customs of her native land, and found that during 
her absence of nearly twenty years Roman society 
seemed to have forgotten her, and that there was little 
chance of her being able to resume the role which she 
had once played in it. 

On her return journey, she passed some months at 
Genoa, and then embarked on a little felucca bound for 
Marseilles. This proved an unfortunate step, as she 
had not been many hours at sea when the felucca was 
attacked and captured by a corsair of Finale, which 
carried off both the vessel and its distinguished pas- 
senger into that port. The governor of the city, how- 
ever, having learned of the Constabless's plight, sent 
soldiers to liberate her and to arrest the captain of the 
corsair, whom he threw into prison. Matters would no 

1 The Due de Nevers, who died in May 1707, had four sons and two 
daughters : 1. Eloi, who died young ; 2. Gabriel, Due de Donzi, died in 
1683 ; 3. Philippe Jules Francois, Prince de Vergagne, Due de Nevers, who 
attained the age of ninety-three, and was the father of the amiable and 
accomplished Due de Nivernais, whom Lord Chesterfield holds up to his 
son as a model for him to form himself upon ; 4. Jacques Hippolyte, Marquis 
de Mancini, who inherited his father's property in Italy; 5. Diane Gabrielle 
Victoire, who married the Prince de Chimay ; 6. Adelaide Philippe, who 
became the wife of Louis Antoine, Due d'Estrees. 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 411 

doubt have gone hardly with the audacious pirate, had 
not Marie, probably thinking, as one of her biographers 
suggests, that the poor man had been sufficiently 
punished by being compelled to surrender so beautiful 
a prize as herself, obtained his pardon from the governor, 
after which she resumed her interrupted voyage and 
reached Marseilles without further adventures. 1 

On her return to Madrid, Marie seems to have 
occupied a very enviable position, her house being the 
rendezvous of the foreign Ambassadors and all the most 
notable persons of the Court ; while, notwithstanding 
her pronounced French sympathies, she was on terms of 
the closest intimacy with the new Queen, Maria Anna of 
Neuburg. When, on the death of Carlos II, Louis 
XIV's grandson, the Due d'Anjou, became King of Spain, 
under the title of Philip V, Maria Anna was exiled to 
Toledo (January 1702). The Constabless, however, 
remained faithful to her royal friend, accompanied her in 
her exile, and did everything possible to bring about a 
reconciliation between her and the new king. Chiefly, it 
would appear, through her efforts, Philip made a journey 
to Toledo and had an interview with the Queen- 
Dowager. The Constabless was present on this occa- 
sion, and was very graciously received by his Majesty, 
who conversed with her for some time ; while she, on 
her part, was no doubt charmed by the strong re- 
semblance which he bore to his grandfather. However, 
the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession 
precluded any hope of Maria Anna being allowed to 
return to Madrid, and, in the autumn of that year, the 
Constabless received a friendly hint from the Marquis de 
Louville, the French Ambassador at Madrid, that, by 
her advocacy of the Queen-Dowager's cause, she had 

1 Lucien Perey, "Marie Mancini Colonna." 



412 FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

somewhat compromised herself with the new Court, and 
that it would be advisable for her to retire to Barcelona. 

At the end of January 1703, the Constabless, finding 
that Madrid was likely to remain prohibited ground to 
her for some time to come, decided to visit France, to 
which Louis XIV had accorded her permission to return 
whenever she pleased. After spending some time at 
Lyons, a town endeared to her by the souvenirs of the 
happy past, she passed on to Avignon, where we hear 
of her driving about " in a coach and six accompanied 
by two equerries." While at Avignon, she narrowly 
escaped being made the victim of an impudent impostor, 
a young man named Morandi, who pretended to be a con- 
nection of the Mazarin family, and whose fraud was only 
discovered on the eve of his receiving a considerable sum 
of money from the Constabless and other members of 
the family, whom she had asked to assist him. 

This incident seems to have disgusted Marie with 
Avignon, which she shortly afterwards quitted, and after 
spending some time at Marseilles and other towns in 
the south of France, she determined to visit Paris. 
Nothing had been said about Paris in the permission 
which she had received to enter France ; but, when she 
wrote to the Minister Barbezieux, leave was imme- 
diately accorded her. She arrived at the beginning of 
September 1703, but did not reside in the city itself, 
preferring to take up her quarters in a house at Passy, 
which belonged to the Due de Nevers. She was accom- 
panied by two waiting-women, two equerries, and about 
a dozen men-servants. 

Saint-Simon, with his customary inaccuracy where 
the Mancini are concerned, states that Marie only re- 
ceived permission to reside at Passy, "on condition that 
she should not set foot in Paris, much less in the 



FIVE FAIR SISTERS 413 

Court." But, as a matter of fact, Louis XIV sent the 
Due d'Harcourt to pay her " a thousand compliments," 
and to invite her to Versailles. The invitation, how- 
ever, was courteously declined, for what reason is un- 
certain, though, as the Marquise d'Huxelles, who saw 
her at this time, states that she was "fort detruitc de sa 
personnel it is not improbable that feminine pride ren- 
dered her reluctant to reveal to the lover of her youth 
the ravages which time had wrought. She, however, 
visited Paris, which had been improved out of all know- 
ledge since she had last seen it in 1 661, and wrote to her 
son Don Carlo that the changes seemed to her incredible. 1 

The Constabless remained at Passy until the middle 
of October, when she left for the South, and, after 
spending some weeks at Lyons and Nevers, at the 
beginning of January 1704, quitted France, for the 
last time, and returned to Rome. 

Until recently, nothing was known of Marie's last 
years, and even the place and date of her death were 
matters of conjecture. Thanks, however, to the in- 
defatigable researches of Lucien Perey, it now appears 
that they were passed entirely in Italy, where she 
divided her time between Rome, Florence, and Venice, 
and devoted herself with much solicitude to all that 
concerned the welfare of the Colonna family. Of 
her three sons, Filippo succeeded his father as Grand 
Constable of Naples ; Don Carlo, a great favourite at 
the Vatican, was made a cardinal in May 1706 ; while 
Marco Antonio married Diana Paleotto di Bologna, a 
daughter of Lorenzo Colonna's former mistress. 

The death of the Constabless's sister Marianne, fol- 
lowed closely by that of her eldest son, the Constable, 
who died in her arms in November 17 14, affected 

1 Lucien Perey, " Marie Mancini Colonna." 



4H FIVE FAIR SISTERS 

her deeply, and she became convinced that her own 
end was at hand. Though she had had little religion 
in her youth, in her old age she had become very 
devout, and, in May 171 5, went to Pisa to consult 
a certain Spanish monk Padre Ascanio Salvatore, whom 
she had taken for her confessor during her visits to 
that city, about certain changes in her will, which the 
death of her eldest son had rendered necessary. One 
day, while visiting him, at the Priory of the Holy 
Sepulchre, she was seized with an attack of apoplexy, 
and died early on the following morning, without re- 
covering consciousness, on the humble pallet of her 
confessor, to which she had been carried. 

In her will, the Constabless had left directions that 
she was to be buried in the place where she died, and 
she was accordingly interred in the Church of the Holy 
Sepulchre at Pisa, where the simple inscription 

"MARIE MANCINI COLONNA 

ASHES AND DUST." 

marks the spot where she lies. 

" Marie Mancini," says Saint-Simon, " was the best 
of the Mancini and the most foolish" ; and with this 
dictum few who have read these pages will be inclined 
to disagree. She had many noble qualities ; she was 
high-minded, generous, sincere, and affectionate ; but she 
was headstrong and impetuous, and subordinated every- 
thing to her desires and her passions, though how far the 
escapades of her middle life were due to her natural im- 
pulses and how far to the effects of the illness from which 
she had suffered at Loretto in 1661 is difficult to say. 
However that may be, there can be no question that her 
influence over Louis XIV was, as we have said elsewhere, 
in its early phases at least, a most salutary one, and that 
is perhaps her best claim to be remembered. 



INDEX 



Aiguillon, Duchesse d', 49 

Alen9on, Mile, d', 199 

Alluye, Madame d', 101, 141, 371 and 
note, 372, 374, 375 

Altieri, Cardinal, 303, 307, 308, 309, 
310, 320, 342 

Angelelli, Marchese de, 221, 235, 237 

Anjou, Philippe, Due d'. See Orleans, 
Philippe, Due d' 

Anne of Austria, Queen of France, her 
reception of Mazarin's nieces, 4-6 ; 
her relations with Mazarin con- 
sidered, 6-14 ; rebuffs the Marquis 
de Jarze, 18, 19 ; libelled by the 
Frondeurs, 21 note ; her corre- 
spondence with Mazarin during his 
exile at Briihl, 25-28 ; her tender 
letter to him, 33 ; accompanies 
Louis XIV to Lyons, 85-95 ; alarmed 
at Louis XIV's passion for Marie 
Mancini, IOI-103 ; endeavours to 
dissuade the King from marrying 
Marie, III, 112; her touching in- 
terview with her son, 116, 117; 
accused by him of embittering the 
Cardinal against his niece, 127 ; 
Mazarin's letter to her from Cadillac, 
129, 130; and from Saint -Jean-de- 
Luz, 1 39-141 ; her interview with 
Marie Mancini and her sisters at 
Saint-Jean-d'Angely, 143-145 ; Ma- 
zarin's diplomatic letter to her, 158, 
159; her aversion to Marie Mancini, 
180, 181 ; her interview with Philip 
IV of Spain, 197, 198 ; Mazarin's 
treatment of her during his last 
illness, 223, 224 ; opposed to Marie 
Mancini remaining in France, 234 ; 
also mentioned, 63, 65, 68, 104, 107, 
109, no, 113, 118, 128, 130, 141, 
142, 146, 159, 187, 199, 204, 210, 
217, 235 



Astorga, Marques d' (Viceroy of 

Naples), 287 note, 298 
Aulnoy, Madame d' (cited), 350-352, 

359. 36o 

B 

Banier, Baron de (lover of Madame 

de Mazarin), 398 
Barberini, Cardinal, 16 
Barine, Arvede (cited), 72, 112, 201 
Bartet (confidential agent of Mazarin), 

r 75> J 76, 179, 226 
Beaufort, Due de, 4 note, 18, 22, 24 
Beauvais, Madame de, 19, 66, 216, 217 
Beauvau, Marquis de (cited), 206, 207 
Belbeuf, Jacques (lover of Madame de 

Mazarin), 283, 284 
Benedetti, Abbe" (cited), 236, 237 
Benedetti, Elphideo, 12 
Blouin (valet de chambre to Louis 

XIV), 129, 177 
Bologna, Don Maurizio, 328, 329 
Borgomainero, Marchese di, 331 and 

note, 336, 337 
Bouillon, Due de (husband of Mari- 
anne Mancini), 253, 254, 255, 258, 

3 6 3< 364. 367-370, 405 
Bouillon, Duchesse de (Marianne 
Mancini), brought to France, 52 ; 
Mazarin's practical joke at her ex- 
pense, 53 ; sent with her sisters, 
Marie and Hortense, to La Rochelle, 
118 ; accompanies them to meet the 
Court at Saint-Jean-d'Angely, 142- 
145 ; her letters to the Cardinal, 
140 note, 148, 174, 189; Mazarin's 
bequest to her, 232 ; married to the 
Due de Bouillon, 253, 254; her 
patronage of La Fontaine, 255-25S ; 
her intrigues against Racine's 
" Phedre," 259, 260; sent to a con- 
vent, 364 ; compromised in the 
Poison Trials, 367, 36S ; her trial 



415 



416 



INDEX 



before the Chambre Ardente, 369, 
370 ; exiled to Nerac, 370 ; visits 
the Duchesse de Mazarinin England, 
399, 400 ; returns to France, 401 ; 
visits her brother in Rome, 404, 405 ; 
her quarrel with the Duchess of 
Hanover, 405 ; her death, 405 ; 
Saint-Simon's eulogy of her, 405, 
406 ; her children, 406, 407 ; also 
mentioned, 260, 267, 271, 302, 315 
Brienne, Madame de, 8, 9 
Brinvilliers, Marquise de, 365 



Candale, Due de, 16, 17 and note, 40 
Capitor (jester of Don Juan of Austria), 

103 
Carignan, Princesse de, 29, 60, 61, 62 
Carignan, Prince Thomas de, 32, 60 
Chantelauze, M. (cited), 110, 201, 329, 

346 note 
Charles II of England, 225-227, 329, 

345. 346, 394, 395 and note, 401 
Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, 178, 

205-209, 216, 272 
Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy, 

84 and note, 88 and note, 91, 92 and 

note, 93, 225, 322, 323, 324-336, 

340, 341 

Charles of Lorraine, Prince, 178, 183, 
190, 191, 200-202, 205, 206, 209, 
210, 212, 216, 233, 234 

Cheruel, M. (cited), 11, 12, 1 10 

Chigi, Cardinal, 286 

Chigi, Don Augustin (lover of Madame 
de Mazarin), 284 

Choisy, Abbe de, 200; (cited), 158 note, 
376 note 

Christina, Queen of Sweden, 63, 71 

Christine of France, Duchess of Savoy, 
83, 84, 88-95 

Clement X, Pope, 303, 307, 300, 310, 
326 

Colbert, 77, 131, 125, 129, 157, 162, 
177 note, 205, 218, 224, 231, 268, 
318, 319, 347, 348, 355, 359, 360, 
373. 38i. 382 

Colbert de Terron (Governor of La 
Rochelle), 121, 165, 177 

Colbert, Madame, 187 

Colonna, Carlo, 277, 409, 410, 413 

Colonna, Lorenzo Onofrio, Constable 
(husband of Marie Mancini), 178, 
182, 183, 216, 223, 234, 235, 236, 
237-242, 274-280, 282, 284, 296- 
297, 298, 301, 303, 307, 308, 309, 
310, 321, 322, 323, 326, 328, 331, 
332, 335. 336. 337, 338, 34i, 342, 



343. 348-350, 352, 353. 354, 357, 
353, 359. 408, 409 
Colonna, Constabless (Marie Mancini), 
her childhood, 35-37 ; brought to 
France, 37, 38 ; sent to the Couvent 
de la Visitation, 44 ; her remark- 
able intelligence, 45 ; her letters to 
Mazarin, 46-48 ; her hand refused 
by the Marquis de la Meilleraye, 49, 
50 ; harshly treated by her mother, 
53, 54 ? becomes one of the most 
cultured women of her time, 55, 56 ; 
beginning of her friendship with 
Louis XIV, 56 ; her personal appear- 
ance, 69 ; her increasing intimacy 
with the King, 69, 70 ; her bene- 
ficial influence over his mind, 70-71 ; 
her grief during his illness at Calais, 
78 ; Louis XIV's attentions to her at 
Fontainebleau, 79-81 ; accompanies 
the Court to Lyons, 85-88 ; dis- 
suades the King from marrying 
Princess Margherita of Savoy, 91 
and note ; resolved to become Queen 
of France, 96, 98 ; constantly in the 
King's company, 96, 97 ; growing 
passion of Louis XIV for her, 100- 
104 ; secures the dismissal of Don 
Juan of Austria's jester, 104 ; her 
influence over the King alarms 
Mazarin and Anne of Austria, 107- 
109 ; Louis XIV determined to 
marry her, 109 ; ordered to leave 
the Court, 112; her interview with 
the King, 1 14 ; presented by him 
with the pearls of Queen Henrietta 
Maria, 115, 116; her departure for 
La Rochelle, 117, 118; falls ill at 
Notre- Dame -de-Clery, 119, 120; 
receives "very long and very tender 
letters" from the King, 120, 121: 
arrives at La Rochelle, 124 ; her in- 
terview with Louis XIV at Saint- 
Jean-d'Angely, 142-145 ; pretends 
to submit to the Cardinal's wishes, 
146, 147 ; breaks off her corre- 
spondence with Louis XIV, 162- 
166 ; declines to reply to the King's 
letters, 168-171 ; writes to Mazarin, 
171, 172; goes to Brouage, 172, 
173 ; in despair at the resumption of 
the King's relations with the Com- 
tesse de Soissons, 180-182 ; refuses 
the hand of the Constable Colonna, 
182, 183 ; returns to Paris, 184-187 ; 
receives a letter from the King, 187, 
188 ; attentions paid to her by Prince 
Charles of Lorraine, 190, 191 ; 
anxious to marry the prince, 200- 



INDEX 



4*7 



203 ; Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, 
proposes for her hand, 205-209 ; 
her icy reception by Louis XIV at 
Fontainebleau, 211-215 ; pressed by 
Mazarin to marry the Constable 
Colonna, 216; witnesses the entry 
of Maria Theresa into Paris, 217- 
222 ; promises to marry the Con- 
stable Colonna, 223 ; her remark on 
learning of Mazarin's death, 230 ; her 
painful interview with Louis XIV, 
2 33> 2 34 5 refuses to break with the 
Constable Colonna, 234 ; her mar- 
riage, by procuration, with the Con- 
stable, 235 ; her journey to Italy, 
235-237 ; her meeting with her 
husband, 238 ; her dangerous illness 
at Loretto, 240, 241 ; arrives in 
Rome, 241, 242; her early married 
life, 274-277 ; separation di letto 
between her and her husband, 277- 
2 79 j g° es to Milan to meet her 
sister Hortense, 2S0 ; assists Hor- 
tense to escape from the Convent of 
Campo-Marzo, 282 ; estrangement 
between her and the Constable, 286, 
287 ; believes that her husband in- 
tends to poison her, 288-290 ; 
promised an asylum in France by 
Louis XIV, 290, 291 ; her flight to 
France, 293-301 ; sends a message 
to Louis XIV, 304 ; forbidden by 
the Queen to come to Paris, 305 ; 
her interview with her brother at 
Grenoble, 306 ; her journey to Fon- 
tainebleau, 312, 313; enters the 
Abbey of Lys, 314, 315 ; her im- 
prudent letter to Colbert, 318; sent 
to the Abbey of Avenay, 324 ; goes 
to Turin, 324 ; her life there, 324- 
333 ; her relations with Charles 
Emmanuel II considered, 334 ; 
quarrels with the Duke, 334, 335 ; 
refused an asylum in France, 335 ; 
sets out for Flanders, 336-338 ; im- 
prisoned at Antwerp, 339, 340 ; goes 
to Madrid, 341, 342 ; enters a con- 
vent, 343 ; escapes, but is brought 
back, 344 ; writes to Charles II of 
England, 345 ; publication of her 
apocryphal and her genuine memoirs, 
346 ; second attempt at escape, 347, 
348 ; visited by her husband, 34S, 
349 ; takes refuge at the French 
Embassy, 353, 354; goes to reside 
in her husband's palace, 355 ; im- 
prisoned in the Alcazar of Segovia, 
356, 357 5 promises to become a nun 
and enters the Convent of the Con- 

2 E 



ception, 357, 358; refuses to carry 
out her promise, 359, 360 ; set at 
liberty, 360, 361 ; coldness between 
her and the Comtesse de Soissons, 
381 ; her grief on learning of her 
husband's death, 409 ; visits Rome, 
410; returns to Madrid, 411; ac- 
companies Maria Anne of Neuburg 
to Toledo, 411 ; visits France, 412 ; 
declines Louis XIV's invitation to 
Court, 413 ; her last years and death, 

413. 414 
Colonna, Ferdinando, 341, 342, 343, 

345, 348, 356 
Colonna, Filippo, 276, 277, 354, 355, 

413, 4U 
Colonna, Marco Antonio, 277, 343, 

413 
Conde, Prince de, 19, 20, 23, 30, 32, 

145, 377 note 
Conti, Prince de, 20, 38-42, 197 
Conti, Princesse de (Anne Marie Mar- 

tinozzi), 3-6, 38-42, 143, 197 
Cosnac, Daniel de (cited), 17, 58, 59 
Couberville, "Chevalier" de (lover of 

Madame de Mazarin), 272, 280-283 
Coulanges, Marquise de, 391 
Courtenay, Prince de, 227 
Crequi, Due de, 197, 314, 315 and note, 

317. 
Crequi, Duchesse de, 187 



D 

Deshoulieres, Madame, 254, 258 
Du Fouilloux, M., 141, 142, 145 
Du Fouilloux, Mile. See Alluye, 

Madame 
Du Saussois (physician), 77 



E 

Epernon, Due d', 87 

Epernon, Duchesse d', 67 

Estrees, Cardinal d' (French Ambassa- 
dor in Rome), 298, 299 and note, 
317, 322 

Estrees, Due d', 289 

Evelyn, John (cited), 395 and note 



Fontanges, Mile, (mistress of Louis 
XIV), 235 note, 243, 377 note 

Fouquet, Nicolas, 224 

Francesco I, Duke of Modena, 51 

Francesco II, Duke of Modena, 51, 
314 note 



4i8 



INDEX 



Gazette de France (cited), 61, 221 
Gazette de Leyden (cited), 287 note 
Gomont, M. de, 325, 327 
Gramont, Chevalier de, 219 note, 248, 

249 
Grignan, Comte de, 300, 301 
Grignan, Comtesse de, 258 and note, 

302 
Grillo, Marchese del (lover of Madame 

de Mazarin), 284 
Gusman, Don Domenico, 284 

H 

Haro, Don Luis de (Prime Minister of 
Spain), 108, 136, 198 

Henrietta Anne of England. See Or- 
leans, Henrietta Anne, Duchesse d' 

Henrietta Maria, Queen of England, 
115, 186, 217, 293 

Hocquincourt, Marechal, 21, 29, 30 

Hopital, Marechal de V, 186 

Hopital, Marechale de 1', 74 

Huxelles, Marquise d' (cited), 413 



Innocent X, Pope, 13, 14 
Innocent XI, Pope, 358, 360 



Jarze, Marquis de, 18-20 
Juan of Austria, Don, 103, 104, 347, 
348, 350 

K 

Keroualles, Louise de, 394, 395 note 



La Fayette, Madame de la (cited), 109, 

214, 389 
Lafesnestre, M. Georges (cited), 256 
La Fontaine, 148, 255-258, 400 
La Gilbertiere, 312, 313, 314, 315, 317, 

319 and note 
La Grande Mademoiselle, See Mont- 

pensier, Mile, de 
Lamoignon, Mere Elisabeth de, 44 
La Motte d'Argencourt, Mile, de, 65, 

66 
La Motte-Houdancourt, Mile, de, 75, 

101 note, 102 
La Rochefoucauld, Due de, 55 
La Valliere, Louise de, 42, 235 note, 

242, 245, 371 
Le Camus, Abbe, 105 
Le Fare, Marquis de (cited), 244, 250 
Lesage (magician), 367, 368, 370 



Lionne, Hugues de, 106, 107, 237 note 
Livet, M. Charles (cited), no 
Loiseleur, M. Jules (cited), 1 1-14 
Loret, Jean, 148 ; (cited), 185 
Lorraine, Chevalier de, 284, 287 note, 

290-292, 307 
Los Balbases, Marques de, 238, 280, 

353> 356, 359. 360, 382 
Los Balbases, Marquesa de, 409 
Louis XIV, goes to meet Mazarin on 
his return from his second exile, 33 ; 
beginning of the friendship between 
him and Marie Mancini, 56; "dan- 
cing with grace and majesty," 57 ; 
his intimacy with Olympe Mancini, 
62-64; his early galanteries, 65, 66; 
growing attachment between him and 
Marie Mancini, 68-70 ; her beneficial 
influence over him, 71, 72; has a 
passing fancy for Mile, de la Motte- 
Houdancourt, 75, 76 ; falls danger- 
ously ill at Calais, 76—78 ; his atten- 
tions to Marie Mancini at Fontaine- 
bleau, 79~8i ; Mazarin's matrimonial 
projects for him, 82-84 ; his journey 
to Lyons to meet the Princess Mar- 
gherita of Savoy, 82-99 5 his passion 
for Marie Mancini increasing, 101, 
102 ; dismisses Don Juan's jester from 
Court, 104 ; scandalizes the Spanish 
envoy, 107 ; openly braves the Queen, 
107, 108 ; demands Mazarin's per- 
mission to marry Marie Mancini, 
109 ; flies into a violent passion with 
Anne of Austria, 113; refused by 
the Cardinal his niece's hand, 113; 
attempts to console Marie Mancini, 
114; touching interview with his 
mother, 116, 117; Mazarin's letters 
to him relative to his passion for 
Marie, 122, 126-129, 130-138, 143- 
145, 150-157 ; declines to accept 
Marie's refusal to write to him, 167, 
168 ; has no heart for the gaieties of 
the Court, 175; resumes his relations 
with the Comtesse de Soissons, 179 ; 
his marriage with the Infanta Maria 
Theresa, 192-200 ; his entry with 
the Queen into Paris, 217-221 ; his 
letter to Madame de Venel, 239 ; 
and to the Constable Colonna, 241, 
242 ; takes no pleasure in the society 
of the Queen, 243, 244 ; abandons 
the Comtesse de Soissons for Louise 
de la Valliere, 244, 245 ; exiles the 
Comtesse de Soissons, 252 ; under 
financial obligations to the Due de 
Mazarin, 263 and note ; finds himself 
in an embarrassing position in regard 



INDEX 



419 



to the Constabless Colonna, 310 ; 
annoyed at her imprudent letter to 
Colbert, 318 ; his letter to her, 319, 
320 ; sends her a thousand pistoles, 
325 ; orders the Prince de Carignan 
to send her away from his house, 332 ; 
ignores her request to be allowed to 
return to France, 335 ; banishes the 
Duchesse de Bouillon, 370 ; connives 
at the escape of Madame de Soissons 
from justice, 374, 375 ; his corre- 
spondence with the Comte de Rebenac, 
French Ambassador in Madrid, 383- 
388 ; gives the Constabless Colonna 
permission to return to France, 409 ; 
invites her to Court, 412, 413. See 
also Anne of Austria ; Colonna, 
Constabless ; Mazarin, Cardinal 
Louvois, 267, 373, 375 

M 

Madame. See Orleans, Henrietta Anne, 

Duchess d' 
Maintenon, Madame de, 216, 217, 336, 

380; (cited), 217-220 
Mancini, Alphonse, 52, 73 
Mancini, Hortense. See Mazarin, 

Duchesse de 
Mancini, Laure. SeeMzxcozm, Duchesse 

de 
Mancini, Lorenzo, 2, 55, 56 
Mancini, Marianne. See Bouillon, 

Duchesse de 
Mancini, Marie. See Colonna, Con- 
stabless 
Mancini, Olympe. See Soissons, Com- 

tesse de 
Mancini, Paul, 3, 6, 28, 30, 31 
Mancini, Philippe. See Nevers, Due de 
Mancini, Signora, 2, 3, 35-38, 53, 54, 

56, 57 
Mansfeld, Graf von (Austrian Ambas- 
sador in Madrid), 382, 383, 385, 389 
Maria Anne of Neuburg, Queen of 

Spain, 411, 412 
Marie Beatrice of Modena, Queen of 

England, 51, 394, 401 
Maria Theresa of Austria, Queen of 

France 
Marie de' Medici, Queen of France, 19 
Marie Louise d'Orleans, Queen of 

Spain, 381, 382, 383, 385, 386, 387, 

388, 389, 390, 391 
Marghenta of Savoy, Princess, 84, 85, 

86, 88-95 
Marsan, Comte de, 284, 290 
Martinozzi, Laure. See Modena, 

Duchess of Modena 



Martinozzi, Anne Marie. See Conti, 

Princess de 
Martinozzi, Signora, 2, 3, 51, 282 
Mazarin, Cardinal, his misplaced kind- 
ness to his brother Michele, 1,2; 
summons the first detachment of his 
nieces and nephews to France, 3, 4; 
his coolness towards them, 4, 5 ; his 
relations with Anne of Austria con- 
sidered, 6-14 ; sends his nieces to 
Val-de-Grace, 15; his plans for their 
establishment in life, 16, 17 ; affiances 
Laure Mancini to the Due de Mer- 
cceur, 17, 18; goes into exile, 20; 
burned in effigy, 20 note ; his sojourn 
at Briihl, 22-24 ; his correspondence 
with Anne of Austria, 25, 26 ; returns 
to France, 26-28 ; his grief at the 
death of his nephew Paul Mancini, 
30, 31 ; shamefully libelled, 31, 32 ; 
goes into exile for the second time, 
32 ; returns in triumph to Paris, 33, 
34 ; summons a second detachment of 
his relations to France, 35, 36 ; mar- 
ries Anne Marie Martinozzi to the 
Prince de Conti, 38-41 ; marries 
Laure Martinozzi to Francesco d' 
Este of Modena, 50, 51 ; summons 
Alphonse and Marianne Mancini to 
France, 52 ; present at the Duchesse 
de Mercceur s death, 59 ; marries 
Olympe Mancini to the Comte de 
Soissons, 60, 61 ; his dislike of 
Philippe Mancini, 73, 74 ; does not 
interfere with the intimacy between 
the King and Marie Mancini, 80 ; his 
matrimonial projects for Louis XIV, 
82-85 ; regards Marie Mancini as a 
useful factor in his plans, 85, 86 ; 
announces to Anne of Austria the 
arrival of the Spanish envoy, Pi- 
mentel, 90 ; regards Pimentel's mis- 
sion with suspicion, 91 ; refuses 
Hortense Mancini's hand to the Duke 
of Savoy, 92 ; his interview with the 
Duchess of Savoy, 93 ; fears for the 
virtue of Marie Mancini, 97, 98 ; 
alarmed at her growing influence over 
the King, 102, 107 ; his conduct in 
the matter considered, 109-111 ; re- 
solves to send Marie to La Rochelle, 
112; refuses Louis XIV's demand for 
her hand, 114; sets out for the Py- 
renees, 118; his letters to Louis XIV 
and Anne of Austria relative to Marie 
Mancini, 122, 126, 127, 128, 129-141, 
150-157, 158-161 ; learns that Marie 
has resolved to renounce the King, 
162-170 ; sends his agent Bartet to 



420 



INDEX 



Bordeaux, 1 75 ; discovers the treachery 
of the Governor of La Rochelle, 176, 
177 ; determines to find a husband 
for Marie, 177, 178 ; sends the Bishop 
of Frejus to Brouage, 182 ; sends his 
nieces back to Paris, 184-187; greatly 
alarmed at Louis XIV's visit to 
Brouage and La Rochelle, 203-205 ; 
intrigues to awaken the jealousy of 
the King, 209-214 ; urges Marie to 
wed the Constable Colonna, 216 ; 
magnificence of his household, 218, 
219; his last illness, 223, 224; his 
death, 229, 230 ; his fortune, 230, 
231 ; his will, 231, 232. See also 
Anne of Austria; Bouillon, Duchesse 
de ; Colonna, Constabless ; Louis 
XIV ; Mazarin, Duchesse de ; Sois- 
sons, Comtesse de 
Mazarin, Due de, 49, 50, 64, 227, 228, 
229, 261-71, 272, 273, 282, 284, 285, 

305, 33C 395, 401, 403 
Mazarin, Duchesse de (Hortense Man- 
cini), brought to France, 37 ; sent to 
the Couvent de la Visitation, 44 ; her 
letters to Mazarin, 45-48 ; passion 
which she arouses in the Marquis 
de la Meilleraye, 49, 50 ; accom- 
panies the Court to Lyons, 85 ; 
Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy, 
a suitor for her hand, 92 ; " taking 
the same road as Marie," 140; ac- 
companies her sister to Saint-Jean- 
d'Angely, 142-145 ; goes to Brouage, 
170 ; returns to Paris, 184, 185 ; her 
suitors, 225-228 ; her marriage, 228, 
229 ; inherits the bulk of the Car- 
dinal's fortune, 232 ; her unhappy 
married life, 261-271 ; flies to Italy, 
271-273 ; her liaison with the " Che- 
valier " de Couberville, 280-282 ; 
escape from the Convent of Campo- 
Marzo, 282 ; her lovers, 283, 284 ; 
returns to France, 284 ; attempt of 
her husband to have her arrested, 
284, 285 ; returns to Rome, 285 ; 
shares her sister Marie's flight to 
France, 292-301 ; goes to Savoy, 
305 ; rejoins her sister at Grenoble, 
305 ; goes to reside at Chambery, 
311; her life there, 329, 330; her 
diplomatic conduct in regard to 
Marie, 330 ; leaves Savoy and takes 
up her residence in England, 393-394; 
her relations with Charles II, 394, 
395 and note ; Saint - Evremond's 
description of her charms, 396 note ; 
her life in England, 396-399 ; visited 
by the Duchesse de Bouillon, 399, 



400 ; her last years and death, 400- 
403 ; fate of her remains, 403 ; her 
children, 403, 404 

Medina Coeli, Duque de, 354, 355, 356 

Medina de Rio Seco, Duque de, 341, 
342, 344 

Mercoeur, Due de, 18, 23 and note, 
24, 59 

Mercceur (Laure Mancini), Duchesse 
de, brought to France, 3 ; her per- 
sonal appearance, 3 ; her reception 
at Court, 4-6 ; sent to Val-de-Grace, 
15 ; Mazarin's plans for her establish- 
ment in life, 16, 17 ; betrothed to the 
Due de Mercoeur, 18 ; her marriage 
opposed by Conde, 18 ; accompanies 
Mazarin to Briihl, 21, 22; married 
to the Due de Mercceur, 23 and note ; 
returns to Paris, 23, 24; takes charge 
of her sister Hortense, 54; her death, 
57, 59 ; her children, 59 

Modena, Duchess of (Laure Martinozzi), 

35-38, 50-52 
Monaco, Prince de, 395 
Morena (femme de chambre to Marie 

Mancini), 289, 293, 294, 312, 320, 

327, 337 
Monsieur. See Orleans, Philippe, Due d' 
Monterey, Comte de (Governor of 

Flanders), 338, 339, 340 
Montespan, Marquise de, 235 note, 

243, 285, 306, 310, 315, 321, 363, 

380 
Montpensier, Mile, de, 30, 67, 85, 87, 

88, 97, 98, 103, 104 ; (cited), 67, 68, 

79, 87, 88-90, 91, 94, 99, 104, 197, 

200, 389 
Motteville, Marquise de, 64, 96 note, 

no ; (cited), 1, 3, 57, 63, 66, 70, 92 

note, 109, 116, 196, 229 

N 

Navailles, Due de, 219, 249, 250 
Navailles, Duchesse de, 249, 250 
Nevers, Due de, 37, 38, 43, 104, 105, 
106, 204, 230, 231, 271, 272, 281, 
284, 306, 307, 321, 322, 404, 405, 
409, 410 and note 
Nevers, Duchesse de, 284, 321, 410 
Noailles, Due de, 52 
Noailles, Duchesse de, 52 

O 

Ondedei, Bishop of Frejus, 162, 182, 
183, 227, 228 and note, 254 

Orleans, Gaston, Due d', 20, 26, 27 
and note, 206 



INDEX 



421 



Orleans, Charlotte Elizabeth, Duchesse 

d' (cited), 10 note, 377 note, 389 
Orleans, Henrietta Anne, Duchesse d', 

217, 226, 245, 250-252, 259, 386 
Orleans, Philippe, Due d , 6, 78, 97, 

103, 104, no, 199, 219, 226, 245, 

290, 350 
Oropesa, Conde de (Prime Minister of 

Spain), 382, 388 
Ossuna, Duque d' (Governor of the 

Milanese), 338 



Palatine, Princess (Anne de Gonzague), 

86 
Palatine, Princess. See Orleans, Char- 
lotte Elizabeth, Duchesse d' 
Paleotto, Marchesa, 279, 280, 328, 413 
Parma, Duke of, 95 
Pedro II, King of Portugal, 225 
Pelletier {valet de chambre to Madame 

de Mazarin), 292-297, 304, 311 
Perey, Lucien, 413; (cited), 85, no, 

159, 172, 213, 221, 275, 276, 333, 

346 note 
Perkins, Mr. J. B. (cited), 9, no, in 
Perrault, 264 
Philip IV, King of Spain, 85, 95, 192, 

197-199 
Philip V, King of Spain, 411 
Pimentel (Spanish envoy to France), 

90 and note, 91 note, 93, 103, 106, 

133 
Pomponne, Marquis de, 299 note, 300 
Pradon (poet), 148, 259, 260 



R 

Racine, 258-260 

Rebenac, Comte de (French Ambassa- 
dor in Madrid), 381, 382, 383, 384 
and note 
Renee, M. Amedee (cited), no, 257, 

258. 
Retz, Cardinal de (cited), 24 
Richelieu, Cardinal de, 4 note, 6, 7 
Rohan, Chevalier de (lover of Madame 
de Mazarin), 262 note, 271 note, 272, 
273 



Saint-Evremond, 55, 395, 396, 398, 
403 ; (cited), 265, 266 and note, 
396 and note, 399, 402 

Saint-Real, 397, 400 

Saint-Simon, Due de (cited), 230, 377 
and note, 389, 390, 414 



San Tommasso, Marchese di (Prime 
Minister of Savoy), 331, 335 

Sarrazin (poet), 39 and note, 40, 41 
and note 

Savoie, Eugene de, 378, 379, 381, 392, 

393 

Savoie, Philippe de, 378 
Scudery, Mile, (cited), 315 note 
Sevigne, Madame de, 300 ; (cited), 

303, 312, 374, 376, 398 note 
Soissons, Chevalier de, 378, 397, 398 
Soissons, Comte de, 60-62, 24.7, 362 
Soissons (Olympe Mancini), Comtesse 
de, brought to France, 3 ; her per- 
sonal appearance, 3 ; her reception 
at Court, 4-6; sent to Val-de-Grace, 
15 ; accompanies Mazarin to Bruhl, 
21, 22; returns to Paris, 23, 24; 
marries the Comte de Soissons, 60- 
62; her intimacy with Louis XIV, 
62-64 5 her strange behaviour to la 
Grande Mademoiselle, 67, 68 ; flaunts 
her intimacy with the King, 74, 75 ; 
her indifference during Louis XIV's 
illness at Calais, 78, 79 ; the King 
ceases to visit her, 81 ; accompanies 
the Court to Lyons, 85 ; in disgrace 
with Louis XIV, 87 ; endeavours to 
do her sister Marie an ill turn, 143 ; 
misrepresents the latter's conduct to 
Mazarin, 147 ; advised by the Car- 
dinal to behave " with more prudence 
and moderation," 148 ; endeavours 
to recover her influence over Louis 
XIV, 175 ; resumes her former in- 
timacy with him, 179, 181 ; intrigues 
with Mazarin against Marie and the 
King, 210; her spiteful remark to 
Marie, 213; Mazarin's bequest to 
her, 231, 232; "visited daily by the 
King," 234; discarded by him for 
Louise de la Valliere, 247-251 ; 
mistress of the Marquis de Vardes, 
245-247 ; intrigues against La Val- 
liere, 247-250; exiled to Champagne, 
250-252 ; recalled to Court, 252 ; 
visits her sister Marie at the Abbey 
of Lys, 315, 316 ; loses her husband, 

362 ; resigns her post of Superinten- 
dent of the Queen's Household, 362, 

363 and note ; compromised in the 
Poison Trials, 371-373 ; escapes to 
Flanders, 374, 375 ; her adventures 
there, 376 and note, 377 ; settles in 
Brussels, 377 ; her sons, 377~379 S 
goes to Madrid, 380 ; suspected by 
Carlos II of sorcery, 381, 382; her 
life in Madrid, 383, 384 ; charged by 
Saint-Simon with having poisoned 



422 



INDEX 



the Queen of Spain, 389, 390 ; her 
last years and death, 391, 392; her 
character, 392 



Thianges, Diane de. See Nevers, 

Duchesse de 
Turenne, Marechal de, 29, 30, 76, 137, 

227, 253, 254 

V 

Vallot (first physician to Louis XIV), 

77, 148, 150 
Valois, Mile., 199 
Vardes, Marquis de, 219 and note, 

245-252 
Villars, Due de, 353, 354 
Villars, Duchesse de, 353, 354; (cited) 

358> 370 
Villeroi, Marechal de, 27, 391 
Vendome, Louis Joseph, Due de, 59, 

364, 368, 369 



Vendome, Philippe, Grand Prieur de, 

59, 364 

Venel, Madame de (goiwernante of 
Marie, Hortense, and Marianne 
Mancini), 98, 102, 103, 112, 135, 
121, 122 note, 125, 138, 141, 142 
and note, 146, 147, 148, 152, 163, 
168, 170, 171, 173, 174. 177, 188, 
190, 191, 201, 202, 209, 221, 222, 
234, 235, 239, 240 and note. 

Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy, 83 

Vigoureux, la (poisoner), 365, 368, 
369, 37o, 371 and note, 372 

Voisin, la (poisoner), 365, 366, 367 
and note, 369 

Voltaire (cited), 205 

Vossius, Dr., 397 

W 

Waller (poet), 397 ; (cited) 394 
William III, King of England, 401 



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